As you may have seen, Oregon State University and the University of Oregon show quite the support when it comes to donating blood. For the past several Novembers they have competed in the annual Civil War blood challenge. What about the rest of the year?

I have had the honor of advising the OSU Blood Drive Association for the past few years, which also has a counter-part at UO. These student groups help promote blood drives and supervise the volunteer efforts on their respective campuses year round. At Oregon State, week 7 of each term is blood drive week for the largest drive in the Pacific Northwest. The four day drive tends to bring in over 1,200 donors and 300 volunteers each term! I had the honor of going down to Corvallis for this past week, and I am happy to report that the drive beat all expectations.

Monday: 222* on the goal of 216
Tuesday: 264* on the goal of 234
Wednesday: 260* on the goal of 246
Thursday: 303* on the goal of 288
TOTAL Collected: 1,049* on the goal of 984
*All numbers are pints of successfully collected blood products from either whole or double red collections. Actual attendance is greater.

107 percent of the goal for the Winter term drive, which traditionally is the slowest! For the campus community, the blood drive is ‘the’ thing to do and it is always amazing to see such great support.

(Photo from The Daily Barometer, OSU’s student paper)