Alden High School’s partnership with UNYTS continues to grow. The Donate Life Club at AHS has become one of the school’s most popular clubs. I know you must be thinking what does it matter to be a part of Donate Life? The answer is simple! The club develops leadership; we have the opportunity to gain leadership and develop skills through UNYTS. We do volunteer training, social media and marketing, and pre-blood drive education. We gain health and wellness knowledge on the importance of eating healthy and physical fitness. We have the opportunity to work the blood drives. We also educate the community promoting the importance of blood donation. Donate Life Club students are given exciting opportunities to showcase and highlight their experiences as a Donate Life Club member. Every year Alden hosts their own Blood Drive that is on January 21st, 2017. Every year the active members get the opportunity to go on a field trip to the UNYTS headquarters in downtown Buffalo for an inside look. This is taking place on November 9th, 2016. We go on a tour of the building and check out the blood lab. We will sit down with an employee to learn a little more about how it is being involved with the organization. We also participate in Ally’s Rally Bowling Tournament and we are proud to announce that we are bringing back the Donate Life Fashion Show in March.

UNYTS stands for Upstate New York Transplant Services. The services that they provide includes, organ, eye, and tissue donation, community blood donation, birth tissue donation, and donor family services. Some transplantable organs include lungs, heart, liver, kidneys, pancreas and intestines. UNYTS is an organization that is one in only eight centers nationwide to house organ, tissue and eye procurement in one location.  UNYTS is currently headed by President & CEO Mark Simon, and Chair of the Board of Directors David Carlson. If you are interested in blood donation here are some tips:

You must be 17 years of age or 16 with a signed permission slip.

You must be weigh more than 110 pounds and have a picture ID.

If you want to save up to three lives here in WNY, this is the event for you.

You must be in good health, not had a tattoo in 12 months. Hydrate your body with water! When you think you had enough water, drink more. It makes the process smoother and faster. You must eat in the morning.

Eat iron rich foods, many people are unable to donate because they have a low iron count in your blood.

Next week I will be tagging along to the field trip to the UNYTS headquarters downtown. Im very excited to give you an inside look on what happens! Stay tuned and keep up with WACS News for future stories about Alden’s involvement with UNYTS !