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The following article, which appears in the Fort Wayne Sentinel (Indiana), discusses how teenagers are now the fastest-growing group of blood donors in the U.S. The article credits our Blood Donation campaign as playing an important role in the increase.

Teens Step Up as Blood Donations Dip Overall

by John Sullivan, Knight Ridder Newspapers

March 16, 2006

Volunteers at a Pennsylvania high school earlier this year collected more blood in an hour than during a full day at a nearby major pharmacuetical firm.

"No wonder the Red Cross comes here," said volunteer Audrey Weber as she surveyed the bustling, 24-bed blood drive at North Penn High School in Lansdale, Pa. "There's so much blood."

Weber was witnessing a growing trend; from Philadelphia to San Francisco to Washington state, blood banks have begun to realize there is more coursing through the bodies of teenagers than just hormones.

Teenagers are the fastest growing group of blood donors in the United States, supplying as much as 16 percent of the blood supply in some places.

They have become so integral to the nation's blood supply that blood bank operators dread the summer months when supplies dip because students are out mowing the neighbor's grass and not as likely to donate.

The growth is no accident. Blood banks including the Red Cross have aggressively marketed to teens through Web pages and edgy television commercials. Their message: one donation can save three lives.

Research by the Ad Council shows teens today are brimming with good will. They are more willing to engage in community service than many adults, according to the council, which makes public service ads.

Young people are also less likely to be rejected because of tattoos, diseases or medicines, blood bank officials say.

Teens, they say, do what their parents do not. They show up, give blood and seldom use it.

Most important, they are more likely to continue to give blood over their lifetimes.

Teens have become the key to bailing out the rest of America's baby boomers who need more blood as they age.

And just in time. Across the country, the blood supply is in short supply as the World War II generation, the most consistent donors, dies off.

"The need for blood transfusions is relentless," said Merlyn Sayers, MD, president and CEO of America's Blood Centers, which supply about 55 percent of the nation's blood through a network of blood centers.

But even as the need grows, the number of donors is falling by three percent a year, according to the Red Cross.

If you want to learn more, talk to North Penn Senior Alicia Clemens, but call her Sissy. An aspiring jazz singer, she'll push aside a purple streak of hair to tell you how your blood will save three lives and bemoan that many people fail to give.

She'll tell you about the two classmates who died in a car accident last year. That's why she and fellow senior Amanda West organized the drive.

During the drive, Clemens walked among her classmates, sprawled across cots on the auditorium stage like a singer working a lounge, her fluty voice comforting the nervous.

A few feet away, another 14 students were crowded on to a faintly sweat-smelling gym mat, gobbling cookies and guzzling apple juice.

When asked why they want to give, most teens repeat the Ad Council slogan about saving three lives.

Many had to get permission from parents. And many have given before.

Morgan Harris, 17, has already given twice and so has Kara Dawson, 17, who wanted her blood to help sickle-cell sufferers. Donor Ryan Schuler, 18, has joined the U.S. Navy.

To reach teens like Schuler, blood banks are going beyond ad campaigns and hiring former counselors from area high schools. They know the ins and outs of how to get students credit for community service.

In San Francisco, the Blood Center of the Pacific supplies blood for 41 hospitals in the greater Bay Area. The center imports 20 percent of its blood.

Although the center has prospected for teen donors in the past, they've recently hired a former high school counselor to run drives in about 100 high schools. From September through December, they saw 3,399 student donors, an increase of more than 900 students over the same period last year, said center spokesperson Lisa Bloch.

In regions with well-established high school programs, such as Western Washington state, teenagers already give 16 percent of the blood supply.

The campaigns may also have an unexpected benefit. Students are now persuading their parents to donate.

Taejo Yoo, 18, said he did more than donate last drive. He took his Korean parents to the blood drive.

"I took them here twice," said Yoo, 18. "I told them about giving. They don't speak English.

Link to the original article.