OSHS Student Council Blanket Drive

Beloved Spanish teacher Profe. Vaca poses with blankets donated for the drive. Photo Credit: Nicole Gann

The OSHS Student Council is proud to announce this year’s blanket drive at The High School! They are collecting blankets of all kinds for local dialysis clinics, their slogan being: “No one deserves to be cold this holiday season!” For those unfamiliar with dialysis, it is the medical procedure for end-stage renal disease (ESRD), commonly known as kidney failure. During this medical procedure, a tube similar to one at a blood drive is attached to one’s arm. The blood passes through the tube into an external machine that filters the blood of the toxins, solutes, and excess water, then the cleaned blood is pumped back into the arm via another tube. This process makes a person very cold: as the blood is circulating outside of the body, it cools down, and as it is pumped back in, the person's body temperature decreases. This is why blankets are so desperately needed. Last year, Oliver Springs’ very own middle school Beta Club did a project very similar to OSHS’ blanket drive. That drive as well as the current student blanket drive was inspired by Jason Robbins' (the husband of special education teacher Mrs. Eva Robbins and father of ecology, chemistry, and junior PBL teacher Ms. Hannah Robbins) and his own inspiring dialysis journey. So please support your local community by donating blankets for local dialysis patients before it is too late; this drive ends on the thirteenth of December!