Freshman Brendan Collins said his fraternity wanted to do something good in a week focused on excess consumption and partying.
Last year Delta Sigma Phi worked with Counseling and Psychological Services to help students, and this year it organized a blood drive Wednesday at the Chemistry Building with the help of the American Red Cross to donate blood to the IU Health Center.
“We are having this during Little Five because it shows you can still do good this time of year when there’s debauchery going on,” junior Jordan Lenchitz said.
Collins, who organized the event, said his fraternity began planning this event at the start of the semester when it contacted the Red Cross. He said the fraternity’s goal was to raise at least 30 pints of blood.
Lenchitz and four of his fraternity brothers stood behind two tables a few feet away from them was the white bus where people could donate blood. The bus had four nurses who took patients’ information and blood.
There was not much activity around the chemistry building as Delta Sigma Phi tried to entice the passersby. Inside the trailer, donors were seated up-right with their feet on the seats as nurses ran through the necessary questions or routinely checked on them to make sure everything was going well.
Some donors, like freshman Nicholas Flahive, were given a soft red ball to help their blood flow better.
“It makes me feel good,” Flahive said. “I’m trying to save lives during Little Five week.”
Hannah Combs, the donor recruitment account manager for the American Red Cross, helped organize the event. Combs is in charge of all Red Cross blood drives on IU’s campus.
“There are a lot of reasons why students should give blood regularly, but the most important is because our donors save lives,” Combs said.
Delta Sigma Phi offered coupons to Domino’s Pizza in attempts to incentivize students to donate blood. However, most students who were donating blood said they didn’t do it because they cared about the pizza.
Junior Jonny Wright volunteered to donate blood because he said he wanted to be helpful to his community. However, Wright said he could not donate blood and help his community as he intended.
“I’m a British citizen, and I’m only here for six months as an exchange student,” Wright said. “You need to be a resident for 3 years.”
He was not the only one to be turned away by the Red Cross during the event. Sophomore Hannah Perkins said she was rejected because she had left the country within the last year. Perkins said she felt disappointed because she had organized her morning around donating.
Despite Wright and Perkins being unable to donate blood, Collins and his fraternity brothers said they felt confident in their ability to reach their goal of 30 pints. In the end they gathered 51 pints of blood.
