Goal is to get 35 pints

Ironton High School will have a blood drive today in honor of a student who lost his battle with cancer.

Shane Jones was 14 years old when he lost his nine-year battle with Leukemia in October 2002.

“He was a true Ironton Tiger,” said IHS principal Joseph Rowe, adding his mother, Patty Jones, works in the school district as a classroom aide. “We are doing our part to try to get blood to help people.

This is the second blood drive the school has had this year. The previous was one was in honor of school secretary, Teresa Bowen, who lost her life to cancer.

While IHS has had blood drives before, Rowe said this is the first year that the school has held them in honor of those they have lost.

“We just opened it up to the school and the community, but is an unusual year, we lost our school secretary and it was a huge loss,” Rowe said. “We wanted to name it in her honor, we knew her family would appreciate it. Same thing for Shane.”

Rowe said they hope to get over 30 pints of blood.

“So if we can get 30-35 donors, we would consider that a success,” he said. “For a school our size, that’s a good goal. We just hope we are able to reach the goal and bring honor to Shane’s family.”

The blood drive is sponsored by the Key Club and will be held in the high school gymnasium from 9 a.m.-1:30 p.m. Donors must be age 16 or older and are asked to bring ID or an American Red Cross donor card.

IHS has a memorial scholarship given to graduating seniors in the name of Jones and long-time coach Jeff Carty. And there is the Shane Jones Memorial Park on the corner of Eighth and Pleasant streets.