WADENA — On a day of working towards “replenishing the shortage of blood,” M State Wadena’s commons area was blood drive central on March 1.
The Battle of the Badges blood drive for Vitalant is a themed blood drive where people can vote for law enforcement or firefighters when donating blood. The fun competition brought in law enforcement to donate and has “been a real plus,” as M State nursing lab assistant Dave Uselman said. The event supports Wadena County emergency responders, with law enforcement winning this year's trophy.
“A lot of our students here donate. We usually get anywhere from 90 to 100 donors,” Uselman said of previous blood drives. He has been organizing the college’s blood drives for about 10 years. “We got more from the community this time than we ever have.”
While not many donors voted, the community support brought additional walk-ins along with students who regularly donate. Nursing students Jaqualine Peterson, Sydney Greenwaldt and Abby Obright said donors steadily came throughout the day with students stopping by to donate for a free t-shirt, snacks and the good cause.
“I think it’s awesome that people want to donate blood and help, assist the community,” Obright said. The event collected 97 units of blood.
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Uselman said the positives of hosting the blood drive are replenishing the blood supply, community involvement and students volunteering.
Blood donation organizations, like Vitalant and the American Red Cross, have announced historic low blood supplies. In the United States, someone needs blood or platelets every two seconds, according to the American Red Cross. Each day 29,000 units of red blood cells, 5,000 units of platelets and 6,500 units of plasma are needed.
“Sometimes the blood supply isn’t there,” Uselman said about emergency patients at hospitals. Vitalant blood drives are geared towards helping hospital patients in local communities.
People are encouraged to donate blood to help people such as accident and burn victims and heart surgery, organ transplant, cancer and Sickle Cell Disease patients. Many blood drives also offer incentives like T-shirts, gift cards and other prizes.
About 3% of age-eligible people donate blood yearly, according to the Red Cross website.
The Red Cross has experienced a 10% decline in the number of people donating blood since the beginning of the pandemic and continues to confront issues due to the pandemic, including ongoing blood drive cancellations, staffing limitations and the level of COVID-19 cases, according to a news release.
“Right now the people running the blood drive are running into problems, they don’t have help so they’re having to cancel blood drives,” Uselman said. “So we not only have the shortage of blood, we have the shortage of workers to draw the blood.”
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With support for police, EMS, fire and sheriff departments, M State’s Student Government Association and nursing club helped fund the event and IT student Cree Grant designed the t-shirts.
“We need blood,” Greenwaldt said of the importance of the event. “You can never have too much.”
The Battle of the Badges blood drive will be hosted annually in the spring at M State Wadena. The winning team will earn a traveling trophy for the year.
How to make a blood donation appointment
- Vitalant: Visit vitalant.org or call 877-25-84825
- American Red Cross: Use the Red Cross Blood Donor App, visit RedCrossBlood.org or call 1-800-733-2767
