MIDDLETOWN, Del. – Donned in their professional scrubs, students from Appoquinimink, Middletown, and Odessa high schools teamed up with Blood Bank of Delmarva (BBD) to learn some hard lessons in the blood banking industry with their fourth annual Appoquinimink School District Blood Drive, held as the pinnacle of their Capstone Project.
The Appoquinimink School District Blood Drive booked 21 appointments and ended up collecting 19 units at Volunteer Hose Company on Green Street on Thursday, February 20.
Lesson number one turned out to be how difficult it is to talk people into donating blood. Just ask Alex Eldridge, who recruited her father, Grant Eldridge , to donate, and Justin Jones, who recruited his uncle, Mike Roberts, to donate.
“It definitely was challenging,” said Jones, who is a senior at Appoquinimink High School.
“I learned why it’s so important for many age groups to donate blood, and it saves many lives that people just don’t know about,” said Alex, who is a senior at Middletown High School.
Since 2021, BBD Account Manager Mary Moore has worked with the Appoquinimink students and their faculty advisors to coordinate this blood drive through a Capstone project. This is an academic endeavor students undertake in their last year of high school, similar to a term paper, in that they delve deeply into their subject, conduct research and use their critical thinking skills to come to an academic conclusion.
This Capstone project was conducted by Appoquinimink, Middletown, and Odessa high school students in the Allied Health and the Public and Community Health pathways. Pathways prepare students for post-secondary success in college and career. Students were guided by work-based learning specialists at Appoquinimink, Middletown, and Odessa high schools. Toni Hatch (Middletown) and Ann Terranova (Odessa) checked on students at Volunteer Hose Company, and Ms. Terranova donated blood as well.
In addition to Eldridge, of Middletown High and Jones, of Appoquinimink, the students who put this blood drive together were Kaylee Camputaro, a senior at Odessa High School; Zainub Djangeru, a senior at Appoquinimink; and Terence Aloh, a senior at Middletown.
“We went to the Blood Bank, and we learned behind the scenes how they store blood, how they separate the blood [manufacturing], and how they find different types of special blood for people who need specific units,” Djangeru said.
“Doing this, I learned marketing, blood typing and, honestly, it’s been a great experience,” Camputaro said.
Among other things, students also learned how the Middletown Donor Center affected their collections. Last year, Appoquinimink students booked 45 appointments compared to 21 this year, as the effect of Middletown’s permanent site was palpable. BBD’s newest center opened in August.
