Bradley’s Red Cross Club hosted a Red Cross Blood Drive in Markin on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
Bradley donations are compared to Illinois State University donations to see who can collect more blood in a competition called Challenge on 74. Last year, Bradley collected 146 pints of blood, and the universities combined collected 318 pints.
“Challenge on 74 is a friendly competition between Bradley and ISU,” senior health science major and president of the Red Cross Club Naeva Groenewold said. “Each campus commits to donating a certain amount of blood, and whoever collects a greater percentage of pledged donations wins. Unfortunately, I believe numbers will be down this year due to the cold weather, but I am confident that our Bradley students and staff will rise to the occasion.”
The drive was held in memory of Megan Fong, a Bradley student who passed away during her sophomore year. Bradley students donated their time and blood for personal reasons as well.
“I donate every eight weeks,” sophomore psychology major Megan Winter said. “You don’t know who’s going to need it. You might need it one day; your parents might need it one day. I think it’s just important to help others out whenever you can.”
The Red Cross Club advertised the event throughout campus in a variety of ways, including dorm storming, which involves knocking on students’ doors in the dorms and asking if they would like to sign up to donate blood at the drive, and sending emails.
“[The Red Cross Club] always contact[s] me telling me to donate blood; plus I always donate blood every chance that I get when that period is over that you can donate,” sophomore psychology and organizational communications double major Corrie Marshall said. “I know we’re really busy, we don’t have that much money, so just giving a pint of our blood is the least that we can do. I’ve been encouraging all my friends to do it so I hope everyone gets out there.”
In addition to the blood drive, Red Cross Club hosts other events throughout the semester. This year, they hope to start Save a Life Week, which will include activities such as signing up to be bone marrow and organ donors, along with learning how to perform CPR.
“I actually put on the Save a Life week my senior year of high school, where we centered it around the blood drive that they were having and I had people sign up for organ donations, bone marrow donations and everything,” junior health science major and Red Cross Club co-event chair Elizabeth Seip said. “The [donor] has the ability to save up to four other people’s lives and it’s in their hands and their power and it’s just worthwhile. I’m an organ donor too, so when I move on, I’m still able to help somebody.”
