Schools Recognized for Blood Donations

Ventura’s Buena High School and St. Bonaventure High School led the pack this past school year in recruiting the highest number of donors for the county’s annual high school blood drives, according to United Blood Services.

Twenty county high schools donated 1,945 units of blood in community blood drives--enough blood for 4,000 transfusions to Ventura County patients. Buena High, at 223 donors, was the top-producing public school, while St. Bonaventure High finished first among the private schools with 104 donors.

The purpose of the drives is not merely to raise blood donations, but to instill a sense of community responsibility in area students, said Carolyn Tyner, a spokeswoman for United Blood Services. “The idea is that once they are introduced to the idea of donating blood, they’re going to keep on doing it,” she said.

Santa Paula Union High School and the Thatcher School in Ojai also won awards as the public and private schools, respectively, with the highest percentage of donors participating based on the size of their senior classes. Santa Paula Union High School had 125 donors while Thatcher had 61.