“It's cool that it's a competition with Michigan, that makes it a little different,” McColl said. “There's also an ongoing national blood shortage.” 

The blood from the drive will be used locally at hospitals like Sparrow and McLaren.

“With everything going on in the past few months, we were able to actually impact the lives of people who are affected,” McColl said. 

UBI president Morgan James said the theme is going to be different this year, in light of the mass shooting on Feb. 13.

“It's not just going to be the blood battle," James said. "It's also going to be remembering the victims that were lost during our shooting because blood could have helped a lot of those victims, so we wanted to tie it in.”

James said UBI would prefer to have fewer walk-ins this year and more appointments.

“Obviously, we're going to do our best to accommodate everybody because we want to collect the most blood that we possibly can," James said. "But we're encouraging everybody to make an appointment if they want to donate first, just to ensure that they will be able to donate on that day if they come at the time that they want to.”

Donors are encouraged to get plenty of sleep, food and water prior to donating. Plan on the donation taking about an hour. Donors should bring a photo ID with their date of birth listed on it and know the names and dosages of any medications that they are taking, or any out-of-country travel they’ve done in the past three years.

Appointments can be made online at https://bit.ly/April5MSU.