College competition has moved from fields to hospitals with a new program designed to promote blood donation among students.
“Points for Pints,” created by the American Red Cross, is in its first year and is placed during the 2001-02 NCAA men’s basketball season.
MSU is one of 19 schools participating in the blood drives and contending for an award based on the amount of blood donated between Nov. 1 of last year and March 1.
Other participating schools include The Ohio State University, the University of California, Berkeley and Duke University.
Taunia Oechslin, donor recruiter for the Mid-Michigan Chapter of the American Red Cross, said the program is exciting for the Red Cross and students.
“High school and college students for the most part are first-time donors and the younger generation is really the future of our blood supply,” she said. “We encourage the young people to get involved and carry on the tradition for the rest of their lives.”
Oechslin said even after the rush in donations in response to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the nation’s blood supply has dropped since October.
“We saw that through Sept. 11, we have had approximately 10,000 donors in our region that have not come back to donate again,” she said. “We had such an increase in not only first-time donors but regular donors as well that we are really trying to motivate and get them to come back. Whether it’s September or January, we need blood every day to meet our hospitals’ needs.”
Red Cross officials said college students donate about 20 percent of the blood the American Red Cross receives per year.
People older than 17 and weighing more than 110 pounds can donate one pint of blood every 56 days.
MSU won another competitive blood drive, the annual MSU/Penn State Blood Donor Challenge in November.
Political theory and constitutional democracy and social relations junior Dave Bosman, who was the chairman for the program, said he hopes the aim of “Points for Pints” toward college students will bring more out to donate.
“At colleges, there’s a huge potential in young, vibrant, blood-filled people and we have all these people in the central area that we can really tap into and use to help the rest of humanity,” he said.
History graduate student Heather Hoyle said although she has never donated blood, she has been planning to for awhile.
“I haven’t done it yet because I’m a big chicken,” she said. “After September 11, I meant to donate blood but as a graduate student I don’t have a lot of time. I’m definitely not opposed to the idea.”
“It’s really easy to donate blood,” said Red Cross Donor Recruiter Carol Lovelady. “With their time being limited, they can do this in an hour or so and have done something really great.”
