The soft sound of the machine filled the room as senior Libby Wagner sat in the donation chair, doing something no student had ever done before. For the first time, a student is donating platelets for Our Blood Institute (OBI) of Coffee Memorial — an accomplishment made possible with the strong partnership between Key Club and OBI.
For the past several years, Key Club has been partnering with Coffee Memorial to host blood drives at our school. On January 15, 2026, the third blood drive of the school year took place, becoming the first to allow platelet donations at a mobile blood drive. This made it possible for one of our students to become the first student platelet donor in the entire OBI system, which includes Texas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.
At a typical blood drive, donors usually have two options: they can give a regular donation of whole blood, or they can give a double donation, where the phlebotomist takes double the amount of red blood cells. Platelet donation, however, is a completely different process.
“Platelets are small, disc-shaped fragments in the blood that are involved in clotting, they stop or prevent bleeding and are made in our bone marrow,” David Phillips, OBI account consultant said. “Whole blood has all the parts of the blood, but platelets are just the thrombocytes that are involved in clotting.”
The process of donating platelets includes taking out whole blood, separating the platelets from the rest of the blood, and then returning everything else back into the donor’s body. Donating platelets is extremely important because they are used for cancer patients, trauma patients, childbirth, organ transplants, and surgeries.
“The need for platelets is always high,” Phillips said. “All blood donations are important, but because of the high demand and short shelf life, platelets rank right up there with O-negative and O-positive blood.”
At the latest blood drive, Wagner became the first student in the OBI system to donate platelets. Wagner shared that she had continued to hear about donating and decided to give it a try.
“I started donating because I kept hearing about other people doing it, and I wanted to help others,” Wagner said. “After the first time, I realized that I really enjoyed the process, so I continued to keep giving.”
She went on to share that she loved being able to give back to the community.
“Being the first student to donate platelets was exciting, and it was a great opportunity to give back to my community,” Wagner said. “After giving the first few times, I definitely feel like I would donate outside of school, but I’m very thankful that I had the comfort of giving at school the first time.”
Key Club is hosting their next blood drive March 31. To make an appointment, email or go see Mr. Culbert or Ms. Copland.
