In addition to being able to save three lives during this semester’s blood drive, BJU students have the chance to compete in an intercollegiate blood-donating competition and to set a new university record.
The Blood Connection buses will be on campus Oct. 7 through 11, and every donation is vital. According to the Blood Connection’s website, someone needs blood every two seconds.
This year’s blood drive is unique, as BJU will compete with Furman University and North Greenville University to see which student body donates the highest percentage of blood. The phrase “healthy competition” has never been more fitting.
“It’s a great opportunity to help the greater Greenville community,” said Dr. Stephen Jones, president of BJU. “Having three universities compete against each other in a blood drive is a win-win situation for each of the universities and the community.”
The three universities will have their blood drives on different weeks. North Greenville had its drive Sept. 24 through 26, and Furman’s will be Oct. 28 through Nov. 1.
“The goal of the competition is to build bridges to the community as we partner with other institutions for this event,” said Kasey McClure who is the head of student activities and oversees the organization of the blood drive. “This is a wonderful opportunity for us to reach out to them and begin building a relationship with individuals and organizations in our Greenville area.”
While BJU will have outside competition, the other challenge will be to surpass the amount that BJU students have donated in the past. In order to break the previous yearly donation totals, BJU students, faculty and staff will have to donate more than 1,000 units of blood next week.
A whole host of university organizations have come together to put an even bigger emphasis than usual on this semester’s blood drive.
The effort has been led by WBJU, which proposed the idea of the competition and is behind “Campaign for Blood,” a promotional effort led by Brody Bruin who will be dressed as a politician, “campaigning” students to get out and donate. Creative Services is assisting in spreading this promotion by designing the posters and T-shirts featuring Brody. The Student Leadership Council has also been hard at work rallying the student body and energizing the campus.
“We need everybody to donate!” said Andrea Sanford of WBJU. “Bring your freshman roommate who has never given, snag your professor to join you after class, or remind friends on Facebook to #bleedbruin. Show up in groups or show up alone, but show up and represent! For those students who have been waiting for a really good reason to donate, this is it.”