Bob Jones University, North Greenville University and Furman University each held blood drives in October in an effort to serve the Greenville community and to engage in friendly competition. BJU surpassed its donation goals and earned the highest percentage of student body participation.
All who participated in the effort to donate blood can be proud of a job well done. BJU President Dr. Stephen Jones commended the university family for accomplishing the donation goals.
“I’m very pleased with the great response to this semester’s blood drive,” Dr. Jones said. “I’m proud of the many people who stepped up to help meet a need in our community. Through their actions, they reflected Jesus Christ.”
BJU’s blood drive campaign was spearheaded by WBJU, the campus media organization that sponsored and widely publicized the event. During the five-day drive, the “Together We Bleed Bruin” campaign successfully brought in a total of 977 units of blood from the university family, and 28 percent of the student body participated.
According to senior Andrea Sanford, WBJU’s radio program director, BJU students have never before donated this many units of blood in one semester. She said the Blood Connection buses were packed each day of the drive, and the number of donors was steady.
BJU had also never before competed in a blood drive with area universities. This new, friendly competition served the purpose of increasing blood donations to save more lives. Giving incentive to challenge university records, the competition spurred students to donate since a bit of school pride was on the line.
And BJU students had spirit when it came to the week of the blood drive. Students sported Blood Connection T-shirts designed by Aeryk Payne and also tweeted about donating. “The #bleedbruin hashtag was a success,” Sanford said. “Dozens of students shot pictures of themselves while donating or after donating, celebrating that they #bledbruin, and encouraging other students to show up to give.”
After each university held its own drive, the number of students who donated was totaled in proportion to student body population. Furman held a two-day drive with 3.2 percent of student participation, and NGU held a three-day drive with 8.6 percent of student participation. The two universities donated totals of 90 units and 194 units, respectively.
Even though BJU’s blood drive collected the most donations, each university can be proud of what it accomplished, according to Sanford. The true winner isn’t the university that donated the most; the winners are those who benefit from the donations.
