Every year, South Texas Blood & Tissue Center has the privilege of nominating local individuals, businesses and organizations for national recognition of their efforts to promote blood donations.. Northside Independent School District won the award for School Blood Drive of the Year at the 2021 ADRP Conference:
Northside Independent School District
In spring 2020, the South Texas Blood & Tissue Center was busy replacing hundreds of blood drives that had been canceled because of the pandemic. Donor recruitment staff reached out to the city’s largest school district, Northside ISD.
Don Schmidt, the district’s Assistant Superintendent of Adult and Community Services, loved the idea of hosting drives in empty school facilities.
Following dozens of site visits and meetings, the first drive was April 2 at Stevens High School. In 2020 alone, 3,299 donations came from Northside ISD locations – including 945 from first-time donors.
