Competing to Save Lives

A new kind of competition is becoming popular in colleges across the country. It does not require athletic prowess, overwhelming brainpower, or any special skill set.

You simply have to pass the physical. It is, in fact, a blood drive competition.

Colleges across the country are competing with their rival schools to collect the most pints of donated blood. But ancient school rivalries aren’t the only way that schools are encouraging more people to donate. Many American colleges are coming up with more creative ways to stay ahead in the blood drive competition.

Pennsylvania State University’s Student Red Cross Organization has an annual blood drive event called the PSU-MSU Challenge, in which students from Penn State compete with Michigan State students to collect the most blood donations. This successful event, now in its fourteenth year, usually takes place right before the holiday season begins. Blood inventories typically drop tremendously as people start to celebrate the holidays.

This year, Penn State’s Red Cross organization is working to make the PSU-MSU challenge even more appealing by giving out freebies and prizes to donors. These include free pizza, a trip for four people to Michigan State (including game tickets and hotel reservations) and two iPhones, just to name a few prizes. The opportunities to win prizes make the blood drive far more attractive to potential donors.

“I find myself asking, what happened to doing something just for the sheer purpose of helping someone out and doing a good thing?” says Emily Ritter, the vice president of Penn State’s Student Red Cross Organization.

“Many people say to me, ‘Well, what are you giving away, maybe then I’ll donate,’” she says.

The organization also advertises all over campus in order to publicize blood drive events. They also seek out donations from local businesses and enlist the help of other student organizations on campus in order to make the drive a success. These other student organizations become sponsors of one of the drives and help to bring in donors and volunteers. By doing this, they help spread the word all across the campus.

“Unfortunately, we have to spend a lot of money on these drives with advertising and getting incentives in order to make them a success. We use many different tactics to create successful blood drives here at Penn State,” says Ritter.