Student Council earned a $1,500 grant from Carter BloodCare after the school’s name was selected from a hat drawing, and received the money Sep. 18.

“Carter BloodCare had a blood crisis last year,” student council co-sponsor, Dare Kirklin, said. “Each time you donate blood you save three lives, so we hope to save as many lives as possible.”

The first blood drive of the year will be held on Oct. 10 and last throughout the school day. Carter BloodCare will be set up in the gym for the drive.

“After having a certain amount of students attend three blood drives throughout the school year, your school name goes into a drawing,” Kirklin said. “Usually, 10 to 15 schools are selected for the grant.”

Student council was informed that they had been selected for the grant about 2 weeks go, and they plan to give back to the school using the grant money.

“We will mainly use the money for our state convention sending kids there as well as anything else we may plan,” Kirklin said. “We plan fundraisers and give gifts to the teachers, so anything like that.”

Students 16 years or older are eligible to donate blood provided that they are 16 or older and have parental consent. Student Council hopes they can get upwards of 70 students to sign up for each blood drive because high school students donate 20% of the blood Carter Blood Care receives.

“Knowing that student council received a grant makes me super excited for this year,” junior Abigail Powel said. “This will open up many new opportunities for the student council organization.”