Bruins really got their blood rushing for the community.

The Bear River Blood Drive was a student-organized success, organized by senior Grace Tortorici and her team of five people. Tortorici commented on the Blood Drive turnout this year.

“(It was) pretty good,” she said. “We had more than we expected since none of the football players could donate. … I think we got more than last year.”

Tortorici said her and her team worked hard to make the event happen.

“We worked all week to promote it, and we did sign ups at lunch,” she said. “We got here at 6:30 a.m. this morning.”

The event was organized to support BloodSource, the company that receives and distributes the blood throughout the community.

“BloodSource is in urgent need for blood right now,” Tortorici said. “They don’t have enough to give to their patients, so we decided to put on the Blood Drive to help them.”

Garret Graves, a junior, talked about how his first time donating blood was confusing.

“It was fine, just sort of confusing not knowing what to do,” he said. “I came in here not knowing the exact process.”

Graves weighed in on whether the process could have been made simpler.

“No, they did the best they could,” he said.

Graves also said the the pain from donating blood did not phase him.

“Well, I was laughing at it,” he said.

Junior Justin Kilgore had an easier time at the Blood Drive though, stating that it was a simple process.

“It was pretty simple,” he said. “I walked in, filled out some paperwork, answered some questions, then went through the process (of donating blood).”

Kilgore’s opinion on the pain was similar to Graves’.

“It felt like you got pinched, it didn’t hurt at all,” he said. 

Kilgore had a noble reason for donating blood.

“I wanted to save lives, obviously,” he said.

Another junior, Jacob Thomason, talked about how his second time donating blood was easy.

“It was pretty simple,” he said. “It’s my second time so I walked in and told them it was my second time. Everything went a little bit quicker, because I didn’t have to fill out as much paperwork.”

When Thomason was asked if he would do it again, he was quick to answer.

“Yeah, because it’s fun, and you actually get to save lives,” he said.