|
 Carolina Blood Drive Success inspires other schools to
follow
APPLES shows
off ‘Fruits of our
Labor’ April 8
Turns out the annual Carolina Blood Drive is contagious.
The drive – held every June, with a mini-edition each
December – has given other campuses ideas.
First, Appalachian State University (ASU) started a drive in
2007. In January, UNC-Charlotte had a drive with a goal of collecting 425
units, and collected 490. Next August, N.C. State
University will have its first major drive, with a goal of 500 units.
All were inspired by the Carolina Blood Drive, which
will turn 22 with this year’s
drive, scheduled June 8 from 7 a.m. to
6 p.m. in the Smith Center.
Mike Robinson of Greensboro, recently retired from the
American Red Cross, had a ringside seat to some of the developments.
“A person at ASU on the faculty had gotten wind of the UNC
drive and how UNC had such a big goal and was doing such a big-scale blood
drive,” he said. As with Carolina’s drive, the ASU folks wanted a goal of 1,000
units.
Robinson encouraged them to start a little smaller. “If we
have one drive with goal of 1,000, we’re pulling in nurses from all over,” he
said. They agreed to a 500-unit goal for their first campuswide drive, in September
2007. “If memory serves me correctly, I think they collected 667,” Robinson
said.
It went so well that he allocated enough nurses and
resources for a 1,000-goal drive the next year. ASU collected more than 1,060
units in September 2008 and just over 1,000 in September 2009, beating
Carolina’s 966 and 976, respectively.
However, that compares apples to oranges, Robinson said. ASU
holds its drives when students are on campus and can help promote it and
donate. Carolina purposely holds its drives when students, many of whom are
regular donors, are away, and the local need, therefore, is greater.
The date also depends on when the Smith Center is available.
At ASU, “none of this would have ever happened if I hadn’t
been down to UNC and seen how great that blood drive was,” Robinson said.
Now, the only two 1,000-goal drives in the state are
Carolina’s and ASU’s. Representatives from ASU visited last year’s Carolina
Blood Drive to glean more intelligence.
“We teased them that we didn’t want to give away too many of
our secrets, since they have collected more blood than we have the past few
years,” joked Katrina Coble, Carolina Blood Drive Committee chair. “This year,
we’re out to beat ASU and reclaim our title as the state’s largest single-site,
single-day blood drive.”
East Carolina University representatives also have visited
the University’s summer drive, although they have not yet launched their own.
Other Red Cross representatives from its Southern region are
set to visit the June 8 drive with an eye toward asking the University of
Georgia and Georgia Tech to take up the practice.
“We definitely have started something among universities
just in the last few years, and it is beginning to grow,” Coble said.
It wouldn’t be happening without Carolina, Robinson said.
All 50 Red Cross recruiters in the Carolinas Region work with college campuses,
often on smaller drives, he said. “They hear about the successes at UNC, and
most recently ASU and others, and that is how it’s starting to spread. It
wouldn’t be spreading unless UNC had set the standard and been doing so for
many,
many years.”
For more information about the 22nd annual Carolina Blood
Drive on June 8, visit www.unc.edu/blood. Registration to give at the drive
will begin at that site on April 19.
APPLES shows
off ‘Fruits of our
Labor’ April 8
The work of service-learning students will be on display in
poster presentations April 8 during the Annual APPLES Service-Learning Showcase
Celebration, “Fruits of our Labor.” The event will be held in the Anne Queen
Faculty Lounge of the Campus Y from
4:30 to 6 p.m.
The showcase provides the opportunity for students to
demonstrate the service and engagement initiatives they have been involved with
and to allow other students less familiar
with APPLES to learn more about the range of service-learning programs that are
offered.
At 5:30 p.m., Carol Tresolini, associate provost for
academic initiatives, will present APPLES annual awards to the following
recipients:
 The
Campus Y will be the recipient of the APPLES Service-Learning Award in Honor of
Ned Brooks, given for the organization’s ongoing work promoting service, social
justice and student development;
BounceBack
Kids, a Triangle-based nonprofit group whose mission is to enrich the lives of
children with serious medical conditions and their families, will receive the
Community Partner Excellence Award for their sustained commitment, supervision
and support of service-learning students throughout the years;
Darcy
Lear, instructor in Romance languages, will receive the Faculty Excellence
Award for her dedication and commitment to advancing service-learning pedagogy
and practice through her teaching and professional development opportunities
for other colleagues; and
David
Baron, a senior, will receive the Undergraduate Service-Learning Excellence
Award for his commitment to social justice and service-learning through his
APPLES Social Entrepreneur Fellowship, HOPE Garden, as well as other campus
initiatives.
To learn more about APPLES, refer to www.unc.edu/apples. |
