The high school achieved a record number of blood donations this year during its annual blood drive.

60 units of blood were donated to the New Jersey Blood Services on Wednesday, September 30 at Glen Rock High School. This number doubled the amount of units of blood that were donated last year at the blood drive.

The goal was to get 50 units of blood. Last year, with the same goal, the blood drive had only received 30 units of blood donations.

Mikaela Rosen and Celia Hans, both seniors, were coordinators of the blood drive this year along with Mr. John Arlotta, the high school principal.

The long process of coordinating the blood drive started last school year.

“All three of us met with the representative, Rossana, from the NY Blood Center to decide on what time and what we were going to do there. We kept in touch over email over the summer and met again in August to discuss more details,” Rosen said.

The blood donated Wednesday will go to people in the New Jersey and New York areas.

Rosen said they sent “a lot of emails to parents and Facebook posting of reminders.” Sign-ups for the blood drive took place in September.

Megan Stoddard, a junior, took part in the blood drive this year. “I wanted to give blood to help people who needed it more than I did,” she said. “I could potentially save someones’ life.”

Throughout the process of giving blood, donors were given something to squeeze so that the blood would pump faster. After the donors were done giving blood, they were taken to a table where they could relax and eat snacks to help make them feel better.

“I knew that my discomfort was nothing compared to the state of the people who would receive my blood,” Stoddard said. “ I didn’t know anyone personally who would need my blood, but it just felt really good to know that I could be preventing someone from suffering and dying earlier than they were meant to die.”