Teen Preps for Medical Career with Blood Drive

Alexandra Galante hopes to be a doctor, so she understands the importance of blood donation. She and mom Anne go all the time, leading to lots of thank you e-mails from Long Island Blood Services.

"The e-mails talked about running blood drives for scholarship money, and my mom just said, 'Why don't you e-mail back?'"

Alexandra did, and the result of that is Thursday's blood drive at Syosset's New York Sports Club, which lasts until 8:30 p.m. Alexandra used to work with the mother of the health club's manager, Dustin Grosso.

"He was a big help in making this happen," Alexandra says of Grosso, who got permission from corporate to do the blood drive two weeks ago. 

It's an exciting opportunity for the 17-year-old Syosset High School rising senior, who's looking to learn anything about medicine while knocking out her college applications. She's already working at Village Pharmacy and looks forward to turning 18 so she can start dispensing drugs.

"I already put the drugs away and take prescriptions from customers to give to the pharmacist, so I'm learning a lot," she says.

Donors must be at least 17 years old (16 years old with appropriate written permission from their parent or legal guardian), weigh 110 pounds and be in good health.

Donors age 76 and older can continue to donate blood if they meet all donor criteria and present a physician's letter allowing them to donate.