Students involved in Russellville High School’s National Honor Society showed the community this past week that they care about more than grades – they care about people, too.

The NHS hosted a community blood drive on Wednesday that attracted a crowd of over 300 students and local residents – a feat that made RHS the number one school in the Alabama and Central Gulf Coast Red Cross region.

“We ended up collecting 304 units of blood that will ultimately be used to save lives,” NHS advisor Deedra Moore said. “I’m very proud of our students and the community members who came out to support the blood drive and make it such a success.”

American Red Cross representatives said RHS went from being the 52nd school in he nation last year to being the 17th this year.

Moore said their blood was also the fifth largest in the entire Southeast region. She said they only missed being the number one school blood drive by 46 pints.

“We had a goal to be the number one school blood drive in the Southeast but this was a great accomplishment for our school and our students,” Moore said. “We’ll already looing forward to next year and securing that number one spot.”

According to the American Red Cross, every pint donated has the potential of reaching three hospital patients in the Alabama and Central Gulf Coast region, which comes down to 912 patients that the RHS blood drive could potentially help close to home.

According to the American Red Cross, someone in America needs a blood transfusion every two seconds and nearly five million people need blood transfusions each year.

The American Red Cross supplies over 40 percent of the nations blood so NHS advisor Rochelle Carroll said those facts really put into perspective how beneficial the NHS blood drive could be to so many people.

“The Red Cross staff was extremely complementary of our administration for allowing them this annual opportunity, to our teachers for tolerating the class disruptions, and to our students for their willingness to donate and the appropriateness of their attitudes and behaviors,” Carroll said.

“The Red Cross now realizes how spectacular our students and our community truly are,” Moore added. “For a few years, we have told them that we can give more if they will bring the personnel to accommodate the donors.

“After last year when there were 206 pints collected in four hours after a two-hour snow delay and this year with over 340 people showing up to give and 306 viable pints collected, the Red Cross is using our school as a model and as a challenge for other schools.”