Angela Hohl was 17 in the summer of 2003 and getting ready to start her senior year at Daniel Boone High School when she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of Leukemia. She died less than a month after her diagnosis on Aug. 28, 2003.
Angela Hohl’s parents, Harvey and Susan Hohl, started the Angela Hohl Memorial Blood Drive in an effort to make something positive come out of Angela’s death. According to Harvey Hohl, “It keeps her memory alive, it helps heal people, and we get to work with students every year who are the same age as Angie when she passed.”
The Hohls look for Daniel Boone students each year who are motivated and want to help organize the four annual blood drives.
“To see [the students’] enthusiasm is one of the biggest blessings. They never knew [Angela], they don’t know us, and they’re just so excited to do this” said Susan Hohl.
This year, the Hohls worked with DBHS seniors Lindsay MacGregor, 18, Taylor Aguido, 17, and Michaelah Flanigan, 18. The trio, along with about 30 fellow DBHS students, organized the event and got the word out through school announcements, phone calls to previous donors, radio interviews, and by hanging flyers in the school and around the community.
In addition, the students completed training to learn how to use the computer systems that track donors and appointments, and they met weekly in the months beforehand in an effort to make this year’s drive the biggest yet.
Aguido has a brother who suffers from hemophilia, a rare blood disorder, and she said seeing the amount of blood her brother needs on a regular basis has helped to motivate her to work with the blood drive.
Aside from that, Aguido said, “You never know what can happen. You could get into a car accident. You could end up getting a form of cancer and need a transfusion. So we [organize the blood drive] for the people who really do need it.”
According to Harvey Hohl, more blood has been donated to the Miller-Keystone blood bank in Angela Hohl’s memory than through any other blood drives. The Angela Hohl Memorial Blood Drive has helped to collect more than 5,000 units of blood in the past 13 years.
Harvey Hohl added, “What we really hope to happen, and we know it has, is that this will be the first blood donation and [the students] will continue doing it for the rest of their lives.”
The December blood drive is the largest of four blood drives held at Daniel Boone High School each year. The Miller-Keystone Bloodmobile, which bears a picture of Angela Hohl on it, is used for the three smaller blood drives, and the high school gymnasium is used for the fourth.
“We try to make [the blood drive] as big as possible every year. We try to overstep our goal from last year, and we’re hoping this year is even bigger,” said Aguido. This year, the students hope to bring in more than 500 donors.
