Kiley Wellendorf | News Co-Editor

Buena Vista University (BVU) will be holding its second annual “Blood Battle” this week on Tuesday, Sept. 23 and Wednesday, Sept. 24. A “Blood Battle” is a competition between a few selected colleges who battle against each other to see what campus can collect the most blood donations. This year, BVU will be running up against Central College and Simpson College once again.

“Last year’s last blood drive was the largest since 2010. We had 79 units collected. The average is 53 units per two day blood drive, and we won the Blood Battle,” Director of Health Services and Wellness Tami Laursen said.

Although this is only the second year for the Blood Battle, donating has been around on campus for a number of years.

“When I started at BVU in 1998 we were doing one large blood drive per year with the American Red Cross. They would come and set up in the gym and collect blood all day long. The Siouxland Blood Bank approached us about doing several blood drives on campus each year. I don’t have the exact dates but would guess it was 2001 or so,” Laursen said.

For those who have not donated before, the process of donating is categorized into four separate parts: registration, donor history screening, donating, and snacks.

When a donor registers to give blood, a receptionist will have them fill out a form about their address as well as a medical-history form.

After forms are processed, each donor will receive a “mini-physical” where his/her temperature, blood pressure, pulse and iron levels are checked.

Once this mini-check-up is over, the donating process will finally begin. (The needles used for donating are new, sterile, and thrown away after blood is taken.)

After about 10-15 minutes, donors will finish donating and be ushered to a room where they will get snacks and relax for fifteen minutes (This eliminates the possibility for a donor to feel light-headed or sick after donating.)

An individual is eligible to donate blood if he/she is over 120 pounds, have not made a donation of whole blood in the past eight weeks, do not have a cold, are not pregnant, and also not under a doctor’s care for a serious illness or injury.

If you are interested in participating in the Blood Battle, donations will still be taken Wednesday, Sept. 24 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. in Forum Room 6.

Graphic by Krystal Schulte