News Photo by Julie Riddle First-time blood donor Maria Schultz faces a needle at a student blood drive held at Rogers City High School Friday.

ROGERS CITY — Teenagers with good hearts put them to work Friday, baring their arms to help save lives.

Bringing blood drives back to Rogers City, a teen-led event collected bags of blood and demonstrated young people’s willingness to roll up a sleeve to do a good deed for a stranger.

When the American Red Cross ended blood drives in northern Michigan in fall 2018 because of falling demand, Rogers City High School student and experienced donor Brooklyn Bober was disappointed.

In August, Bober began work on bringing blood collection back to Rogers City, locating and contacting the Versiti Blood Center of Michigan to schedule a blood drive to be held in the school gym.

The company has conducted several blood drives in Northeast Michigan in the past year, filling the gap left by Red Cross’s exit, and were happy to re-establish drives in Rogers City.

Appointments filled quickly, first with high schoolers and then with adult members of the community.

The students hadn’t signed up just as an excuse to get out of class, Bober said.

“Personally, I wouldn’t skip class just to get a needle shoved in my arm,” she said philosophically.

Maria Schultz, a senior, waited in a donation chair Friday morning, her face nervous but resolute. She’d never given blood, she said, but she was ready.

“They were looking for people to do it, so, I’m like, ‘Sure, I’ll give it a shot,'” Schultz said, a nurse heading her way with a yellow-tipped swab in hand.

First-time donor Brody Clark relaxed at the cookie table for a few minutes after his donation. It wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be, he said.

“It was pretty cool,” he reflected. “It’s nice to help out as much as I can.”

Workers from Traverse City and Saginaw collected the blood, talking encouragingly to their patients and answering questions.

The coronavirus outbreak isn’t shutting down blood drives, one worker said. Donors have to be healthy, making donation-taking one of the few medical professions that works primarily with healthy people and, therefore, a low-risk environment.

About a quarter of Versiti’s drives are held at schools, however, and those scheduled during coming weeks will have to be canceled

With only 5% of potential donors in America willing to offer up a vein each year, each blood drive is important, a worker said, looking in appreciation at the teenagers parked in donation chairs all around her.

The blood drive, sparked by the enthusiasm of one student, was embraced by the school’s Key Club, a group of young people who have raised money for charities, hosted community clean-up days, made dog toys for animal shelters and blankets for maternity wards, and sent packages overseas.

“I’m super-proud of our kids,” said Abbey Idalski, the school’s student success and at-risk coordinator, as she nibbled a post-donation cookie.

As teens manned the cookie table, helped with registration, assisted donors, or waited their turn to stretch out an arm for someone else, Idalski gave encouragement for anyone frightened about following the young donors’ example.

“The needle only lasts a second,” Idalski said. “But the life that you could save will last a lifetime.”

Julie Riddle can be reached at 989-358-5693, jriddle@thealpenanews.com or on Twitter @jriddleX.