MURFREESBORO — The MTSU community poured their
hearts into this year’s three-day “Bleed Blue, Beat WKU” blood drive, turning
out by the hundreds as students, faculty, staff, neighbors and supporters donated
blood and volunteered to help save lives across Middle Tennessee.
Now, while they wait for Saturday, Oct. 15, and the announcement of the
“blood battle” winner at Floyd Stadium during the Blue Raiders’ homecoming game
against Western Kentucky University, some of their donations may be headed to the
Atlantic Coast, too.
MTSU is a four-time champion in the six-year blood-drive competition with
longtime athletic rival WKU. The drive is the region’s largest each year, Red
Cross officials say.
“I’m happy to extend a big thank-you to everyone at MTSU who was involved
with the drive this week,” said Patti Wright, donor resources
development representative for the Red Cross Tennessee Valley Region Blood
Services office in Nashville. “There was a wonderful outpouring of support from
across the university community.
“This comes at a great time for us because we’re facing some challenges
with blood collections this time of year anyway, plus we’ve also just received
emails about Hurricane Matthew. The centers in that area are afraid they might
not be able to collect blood, so we may have to send some of ours down there to
help them out.”
MTSU Associate Athletic Director Diane Turnham, a longtime donor
and an organizer for the annual community blood drive, also expressed her
appreciation for those who offered their time and their blood.
“We are so grateful to all our MTSU faculty, staff, students and
supporters for coming out in such great fashion to donate blood and help save
lives in our community,” Turnham said.
“We all are ever indebted to them for their help, and we hope they’ll
come out to homecoming on the 15th and enjoy the game and see who won our
blood-drive competition!”
If donors were deferred or couldn’t make it to MTSU for the 2016 “Bleed
Blue” blood drive, organizers are encouraging them to come back to campus
Tuesday, Nov. 8, for a special blood drive sponsored by MTSU’s Charlie and
Hazel Daniels Veterans and Military Family Center.
The event, set for 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Nov. 8 in Cantrell Hall inside the Tom
Jackson Building, 628 Alma Mater Drive, will be a tribute to all veterans in
honor of the annual U.S. observance of Veterans Day on Friday, Nov. 11.
Donors can once again make use of the Red Cross’s new technology by
typing “MTSU19” into the “Find a Blood Drive” box at http://redcrossblood.org to make a Nov. 8 appointment or using the new “American Red Cross
Blood” app, available at http://ow.ly/S39Ke.
On donation day, those MTSU donors can save even more time by completing
the new “Rapid Pass” online health questionnaire at http://www.redcrossblood.org/rapidpass on a desktop or laptop
computer.
MTSU students, staffers and supporters have donated 3,232 pints of
blood since the annual competition with WKU began in 2010 — the equivalent
of 404 gallons of blood and nearly
9,700 lives saved in six years’ time.
WKU is conducting its three-day drive next week on the Bowling Green,
Kentucky, campus.
Both MTSU and WKU aim to collect 700 more pints during their three-day drives.
The blood drive is a friendly competition between the longtime football
rivals. MTSU conducted its own successful drive in 2013 when Western wasn’t yet
part of Conference USA.
For updates and more information about the blood
drive, visit http://www.mtsunews.com/bleed-blue-2016
and follow @MTSUNews on Twitter with
the hashtag #BleedBlueMTSU.
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