Eighty Year 12 students and staff helped the Red Cross Blood Services in Australia celebrate 80 years of operation by donating blood at Parramatta. Each year the Year 12 students at Homebush have marked their completion of school study by donating blood. In 2008-9 Homebush scored very highly in the Vampire Shield by making 93 donations and it is hoped with the help of parents and the local community that we can beat this in 2009-10. All you need do, when you are donating blood at Parramatta, is to state that you are representing Homebush Boys High.

Year 12 proudly show off their community certificates for Donating Blood in the Year of The Blood Donor

The process of donating blood is very painless. Students are picked up from school in a mini-bus and taken to the Australia Red Cross Blood Service at Parramatta. While making the journey students fill up an information form (and themselves with water). On arrival at the centre students register and show proof of identification. They are issued with a number and a bag of lollies( to build up their sugar levels?), weigh themselves and wait for their number to come up on the screen to indicate which room to go to to check their blood pressure, iron content in their blood and go over the information form. This is an important aspect of the process to ensure that the student is fit to give blood. Students are then taken into the Blood Donation room where blood is taken. This process takes about twenty minutes but for first time blood donors an extra ten minutes is given for students to recover. Students then build up their strength by consuming milk shakes, pies, pasties, cake and lollies in the cafeteria before returning to school. See pictures of the process below.