Giving students a chance to help save lives, local blood center Carter BloodCare is hosting its second blood drive of the year on campus on Thursday.

“Receiving blood from high schools is extremely important to us as a blood center,” Carter BloodCare consultant Susan Holt said. “We are the local blood center here in North Texas and we have to collect at least a thousand units of blood per day to keep the hospitals we take care of supplied.”

Opening up blood donations to high school students is a way for the blood center to get the youth involved in helping the community and teach them about how beneficial donating blood can be.

“I think it teaches them a big lesson about community service and saving lives, and also shows them not to be selfish,” Holt said. “I also know that students love getting out of class and so it’s a fun time to learn about taking care of other people.”

For the blood center, high school students are the biggest and most ideal group of donors.

“We get a majority of our blood supply from high school students because they are such a giving group of kids,” Holt said. “They’re young, they’re healthy and they’re willing to give up time to donate blood.”

Carter BloodCare also provides honor graduation cords for seniors who donate two times during the school year.

“The reason why we have the honor cord is because we want to encourage students to donate blood to earn the cord,” Holt said. “It says a lot about the individual, that they are willing to take the time to take care of others and save lives.”