Blood is vital for all of mankind. On October 19 Brittney Thompson and I, Laythan Oweis, organized a blood drive with the fantastic partnership of Hoag Hospital and the immense assistance of fellow Key Club members at Calvary Chapel High School to supply this necessity to those in need. At first, taking up this task stirred feelings of uncertainty and uneasiness because of its distinctive contrast in comparison to anything I had done before; I was never positioned in such an important role that would affect the well-being of others. The fear for failure became more evident than anything else at the time, however, the thought of the poster on Mr. Hanson's wall motivated me to coordinate the event. The iconic Winston Churchill once stated that "It is better to do the wrong thing than to do nothing." So with the help of Paul Woo and Sue Forster I overcame my apprehensive way of thought, took up the position of managing the drive, and learned how to effectively organize an occasion and take the leadership position amongst other classmates. In order to run the occasion adequately, all positions of the blood drive had to operate properly. Due to the incredible cooperativeness of over 25 student volunteers at CCHS, we attained the exquisite accomplishment of saving 159 lives through the 53 successfully donators giving a total of 53 pints of blood. Hopefully we will reach our new goal of 85-100 pints of blood within our next blood drive on February 14, 2017. It was truly an honor to influence such a great cause and I pray that more lives will benefit from this amazing program in the near future.
Laythan Oweis