DAYTON – Community Blood Center is welcoming a new year of high school blood drives and encouraging a return to pre-pandemic numbers of young donors with the “Get Loud! Rock & Roll Up Your Sleeve & Donate Blood” campaign.

CBC is introducing three “Get Loud! Rock & Roll Up Your Sleeve” t-shirts exclusively for high school blood drives. The collection includes headphone and guitar-themed t-shirts and begins with the heavy metal “Rock & Roll Hero Tour” t-shirt featuring “tour stops” on the back with the names of all CBC high schools hosting blood drives.

High school donors will be entered into drawings to win a set of Beats headphones when they register to donate at their high school blood drives. CBC will announce a new Beats winner every month.

Also new this school year, CBC is expanding the popular Red Cord Honor Program to include the new $1,000 Red Cord Honor Graduate Award.

CBC traditionally awards the Red Cord to high school seniors who have registered to donate three or more times during their high school years.

The Red Cord Honor Program now includes the opportunity for five Red Cord graduates to each win a $1,000 award to be applied toward their continued education.

All seniors at CBC high schools who have qualified for the Red Cord with a minimum of three registrations to donate will be entered in the award drawing. The number of entries per senior is based on how many times they have registered to donate during their high school years. Five seniors will be randomly selected, and each will receive the $1,000 award.

High school seniors can also earn a Community Service Seal or Student Engagement Seal for Ohio high school graduation requirements by participating in the Red Cord Honor program.

For more information about the CBC high school blood drive program contact CBC education specialist Cris Pickle at [email protected].