Former teacher’s wisdom helps increase high school blood donations

After spending 13 years as a classroom teacher, MD Anderson Blood Bank community representative Jeannette Salloum was thrilled to begin managing the high school component of our blood donor program. 

“It was already thriving when I took over in 2018,” she says. “But as a former educator, there will always be a part of me that wants to work with students and teachers.”

MD Anderson’s high school blood donor program plays a critical part in maintaining our in-house blood supply. MD Anderson Blood Bank depends on donations from students, teachers and other community members to provide the 200 units of red blood cells and 600 units of platelets our patients need each day. 

COVID-19 restrictions forced the cancellation of more than two dozen blood drives in the first three months of the pandemic and prevented MD Anderson Blood Bank from holding high school blood drives again for almost four more months. Once COVID-19 restrictions eased, MD Anderson Blood Bank had to re-establish many of the relationships it had built with schools – and forge new ones.

Forging new partnerships to promote high school blood drives 

Salloum’s experience in the public school system gave her the insight needed to do just that and expand MD Anderson Blood Bank’s reach. 

“Teachers are required to attend a few weeks of professional development before each school year begins,” she explains. “We took advantage of that by calling all the career and technical education coordinators and asking them to let us come do short lunch-and-learns for health science teachers.”

Those presentations gave MD Anderson representatives a chance to thank the teachers they’d already worked with and to connect with new teachers at other schools.

“It’s a win-win when you have the director of career and technical education endorsing MD Anderson Blood Bank and encouraging all of their schools to work with you,” Salloum notes.

More high school blood drives, more blood donations

 Salloum’s strategy proved especially successful for MD Anderson in FY23. Her team’s last presentation at Aldine Independent School District resulted in three new partnerships. As a result, MD Anderson Blood Bank now hosts drives at all but one of Aldine’s 10 high schools and also expanded its reach in the Katy and Willis Independent School Districts. 

“Teachers and students really want to have that experience of giving back,” Salloum says. “It was missing from their campuses for so long during the pandemic.”

MD Anderson Blood Bank now hosts blood drives at 62 public high schools in 21 local districts, plus several local private schools. Thanks to a 31% increase in the number of high school blood drives held in FY23, blood donations from high schools also increased significantly, with 7,716 donations collected — a 27% increase over the prior year.  

“Donating blood is something students can do to give back directly to their community,” Salloum says. “It makes a world of difference for our patients.”

Host an MD Anderson blood drive at your school or community organization.