Students returning from Spring Break have a quick way to get involved in campus activities again. The ISU blood drive will be from March 24 through March 27.

The semiannual blood drive is organized by students in association with the American Red Cross, Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center and LifeServe Blood Center.

“This year, we’re really trying to keep our numbers from last year up,” said Annie Block, public relations co-chairwoman for the blood drive. “We had record numbers and record donations last year.”

The blood drive will be visually tracking and comparing the number of donations to other Big 12 schools and the University of Iowa. This is in an effort to inspire a sense of competition and to allow students to see the progress made throughout the week.

“Consistently, we’ve been the biggest blood drive in the Big 12 schools and that’s kind of our goal, is to really keep that up and keep our numbers strong,” Block said.  

The blood drive may run into some challenges in this respect. For example, the fall blood drive is historically busier than the spring blood drive.

Additionally, there have been changes in Greek Week, which is the same week as the drive and could result in a decline of participation by greek community members. In the past, any greek student could contribute for Greek Week points, but now only 50 percent of a greek pairing can participate to earn points.

“We want to support [the] blood drive as much as possible,” said Maggie Gehrls, Greek Week general co-chairwoman. “We have … a lot of other activities going on, [so] we don’t want to stress out all of our members or have members playing football after they’ve given blood.”

Gehrls said Greek Week wants to continue to work with the ISU blood drive and figure out the best level of participation for the greek community.

ISU blood drive will attempt to compensate for this change with its own competitions. The greek sorority and fraternity with the most participation will be awarded a prize, said Christine Jones, a blood drive co-chairwoman. There will also be a competition for residence halls.

“We’re also trying to just target the entire Iowa State community and not solely rely on the greek system, although we’d still love for them to be as involved as possible,” said Shannon Ure, a blood drive co-chairwoman. 

Students can donate from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the Memorial Union’s Great Hall, but even those not eligible to donate can contribute. The blood drive’s Facebook page, Iowa State University Blood Drive, posted links for volunteers to sign up.

Another change students will see in the blood drive is that students who have recently traveled to Mexico will be eligible to donate.

“It’s an awesome cause,” Block said about the blood drive. “It takes no time, no money and really no effort from anyone. Even if you or your family directly hasn’t been affected by blood donations, every pint that they receive can save up to three lives.”