Fifteen Lee County schools received scholarship money for participating in the Lee Memorial Blood Center’s 8th Annual High School Blood Drive Challenge.
This year the drive netted 5,410 blood donations from 7,115 students 16 and older and faculty members during the school year. A handful of the schools held up to four blood drives during the school year and some students donated a gallon, or eight units, of blood before they graduated.
More than 11,000 patients received the benefits from the high school blood drive, since one unit of blood has the potential of saving more than one life. The blood donated on the Lee Memorial Bloodmobiles remains in the community.
Last year, Lee Memorial Health System allocated money for a scholarship fund to give to high school seniors who donate blood. The amount of scholarship funds is determined by how many units of blood a school donates.
This year Lee Memorial Health System provided more than $54,500 in scholarship funds to the participating high schools, which is an increase of $17,500 from the previous year.
Fifteen schools in Lee County participated in the blood drive challenge this year, which made them eligible to earn a scholarship. The scholarship tiers consists of donations from one to 50 units for $200 to $8,200 for 801-1,000 units of blood donated.
The high schools in Cape Coral that participated were Cape Coral High School and Ida Baker High School, which earned a $6,000 scholarship for donating between 501-650 units of blood, and Mariner High School, which earned a $2,600 scholarship for donating 251-375 units of blood.
East Lee County High School and Riverdale High School earned the top scholarship of $7,000 for donating between 651-800 units of blood.
The senior recipient of the scholarship is determined by the school.
Nancy Hendrick, community relations director of Lee Memorial Blood Center, said high school student blood donations make up 34 percent of its annual collections for Lee Memorial Health System.
Lee Memorial needs approximately 500 units of blood each week to meet the growing demands.