When it comes to bleeding for the alma mater, no state university alumni association is beating Emporia State’s.
In the American Red Cross Central Plains Region’s What Color Do You Bleed? blood drive, a competition among five state alumni associations, ESU was in first place through Nov. 31. The drive ends on Monday.
The competition will rank the schools by percentage of alumni association members who donate. Each school’s alumnus to donate fills out a ballot and brings it to the blood drive for his or her donation; the ballot counts as a vote for that school.
The results from Nov. 1, the beginning of the drive, through Nov. 31 had Emporia State atop the list. Kansas State was second, followed by Pittsburg State, Kansas and Wichita State. Donation percentages for each alumni association were unavailable.
On Friday morning, Patty Tasker of the Red Cross said Emporia now had 28 total votes, one more than K-State.
All entrants would be entered for a chance to win a gift card for a sporting goods store. The university alumni association that wins receives a trophy, as well as bragging rights.
People interested in donating can call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE to schedule a donation at a blood center in their area. Ballots can be downloaded for printing on the Emporia State Web site at http://www.emporia.edu/saf/news/documents/RedCrossblooddrive.pdf.
“Our hope is to bring in new donors this way, people that normally don’t donate blood,” said Bev Kerbs of Emporia’s American Red Cross office. “And they can donate at any blood drive in the whole state.”
Kerbs attributes ESU’s lead to successful communication from alumni administrative assistant Joan Lauber and the rest of the alumni association to its members.
“Joan and some of the people came to the last Emporia blood drive, and they were just really excited about it,” Kerbs said. “I think they think they’re somehow keeping the excitement going.”
Terri Dunaway, American Red Cross Central Plains spokesperson, said Thursday that a lot of votes will still be coming in before Monday’s deadline.
“We do still show Emporia State leading, but we do have some ballots from across the state that haven’t been counted,” said. “It’s a pretty close race.”
This is the first What Color Do You Bleed? drive. Dunaway said the Red Cross’ hope is that it becomes a yearly event with more state schools and more alumni members getting involved.
“It’s been so successful so far,” Kerbs said. “I think it would be a great annual thing to do.”