It’s that time of the year once again. Blood drives. You see them held at pharmacies and even high schools. But how many people have actually given blood this recently?

“I do like to give blood,” junior Madison Skiljan said. “I like that it could help someone in need of my blood type especially since I have very healthy blood and my blood type is one of the rarer ones.”

According the the Red Cross, the numbers of blood donations are dangerously low compared to last year. The average number of blood cell units donated per year is 13.6 million. However, this year the units of blood donations are behind by about 40,000.

“It’s kind of disheartening,” Skiljan said. “I wish more people would donate who qualify for donating blood because there will and are people out there who need the blood from donations.”

According to the Red Cross, the major shortage of blood has caused many cancellations of elective surgeries in Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Atlanta. The shortages are causing fear throughout families who require blood donations for loved ones and spreading chaos throughout hospitals that require blood donations for their patients in desperate need.

“I think that the shortage of donations is a really bad thing,” junior James Solaire Mills said. “People get in a lot of accidents and they really need blood.”

When people are walking down the street, everything seems normal most of the time. It looks like they live normal lives, but sometimes that’s not the case. Some people live their lives by having blood transfusions regularly because of a nearly fatal accident in the past.

“If a person is physically and mentally able to give blood they should,” Skiljan said. “If they aren’t terrified of needles and seeing a lot of blood, then people should step in when they can.”