Davenport students honored for blood donation work

Davenport Community Schools

Davenport Community Schools students are being honored for their help in donating blood throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

The students and the school district received the School Partner of the Year award at the ADRP conference on Wednesday, May 11, in Phoenix, Arizona. ADRP is an international division of America’s Blood Centers. 

The Quad Cities-based ImpactLife nominated the Davenport Community School District with the award through America’s Blood Centers because of the “incredible work students put into donating blood, even through the coronavirus pandemic,” according to a news release from the Davenport Community School District.

“When you do something that’s not for yourself and when you do something for a stranger, you don’t ever expect to be rewarded for that. It’s the highest level of integrity that you can possibly have,” Davenport Superintendent TJ Schneckloth said in a news release. “To have that come back and be shared with our community is a real celebration of hard work and decision making in a very difficult time.”

When coronavirus precautions caused schools to go remote, Davenport Schools continued to find ways to help ImpactLife’s mission. Throughout 2020, schools like Davenport West High School hosted events at community fixed sites, collecting 178 red cell units during critical times of the year. 

Davenport North High School was one of the first two schools in the Quad Cities to resume hosting blood drives as coronavirus restrictions lessened, collecting 28 red cell products. Additionally, Davenport North’s first blood drive of 2022 exceeded the winter 2021 results. 

Since January 2019, Davenport Community Schools have donated more than 3,567 red blood cell products through ImpactLife.

“We wanted to take a look at a school district that continued to be a pivotal partner for us throughout the pandemic,” ImpactLife Blood Services Director Holly Yates said. “And we really felt that Davenport schools tapped into different ways of hosting than your traditional, ‘Let us come into the school’ approach.”

Now, the Davenport Community School District is working with ImpactLife to evaluate and develop curriculum-based activities to support the Johnson and Johnson Vein to Vein Blood Education Program to help advocate for the use of this program in the Quad Cities.

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