By Casey Neill
Dandenong North kids are saving lives by spreading the word about donating blood.
The Wooranna Park Primary after school care program is joining other Extend programs across Australia to encourage the adults in their lives to give blood this month.
Extend After School Care managing director Darren Stevenson chose to support the Red Cross following feedback from the kids.
“They want to help other communities and contribute,” he said.
“They’ve explained to their parents, their aunts, their uncles, their teachers, the shopkeeper, the butcher – everyone in their community -that it’s about one in 30 Australians who donate blood, but one in three Australians will need blood at some point in their life.
“There’s almost no family in Australia that hasn’t been touched by this.”
The children have been doing activities to help support the initiative, from designing a blood transportation vehicle to using a red dye test to demonstrate how blood is collected, stored and moved.
“It’s designed to not be scary, but educational,” Mr Stevenson said.
Once Extend drums up 100 blood donations to save 300 lives, Mr Stevenson will swim with sharks, handle snakes or jump out of a plane.
