After a week of gathering students to participate, the Upper School Council hosted the annual Red Cross Blood Drive on Jan 31. It was an opportunity for anybody in the St. Paul Academy and Summit School community over the age of 15 to donate blood and help someone in need.

USC puts the blood drive together for many reasons, one of the most important being the demand for blood around the country.

“We organize the blood drive because people need blood and there are so many things that prevent people from donating, we want to make as many donations as possible,” senior USC co-President Moira McCarthy said.

For students like those who participated in the school sponsored Tanzania trip, donations were not possible, as there are rules against donations from those who have traveled to a malaria area in the past year.

“I tried to give blood but because I went to Tanzania over the summer I wasn’t able to,” junior Robin Bartlett said.

Despite a few setbacks like these, SPA students, faculty, staff donated 29 units all together.

For anybody who was not able to give blood at the SPA drive but would like to in the future, visit http://www.redcross.org/give-blood to find other blood drives in the Twin Cities.