THE GRADE: Blood donations badly needed during holiday school break

THE GIFT OF BLOOD: Derrell Patton, 17, squeezed a red, heart-shaped stress ball as blood from his left arm flowed through a tube and into a pint-sized plastic bag Tuesday.

Patton, one of dozens of students who similarly made fists and squeezed stress balls to get blood flowing, was sprawled out on a gurney in a Houchin Community Blood Bank bus parked outside of South High School's gym.