On Wednesday, Zeta Beta Tau partnered up with Sigma Delta Tau and the American Red Cross to host its second annual blood drive at the ZBT chapter house. As a result of publicity efforts, 84 donors registered before the drive, in addition to walk-in donors.
Though ZBT President and College junior Bennett Mayrock could not provide the number of walk-in donors, he said the drive yielded a total of 74 pints of blood. Each pint can save up to three lives.
Last year’s blood drive yielded 40 pints of blood from 65 donors, according to a ZBT press release.
Mayrock said the American Red Cross now has plans to take ZBT’s blood drive promotion method across the country to other college campuses.
Wharton sophomore Greg Singer and Engineering sophomore Benjamin Perez, the philanthropy chairmen at ZBT, scheduled the event early in the semester in order to harness back-to-school momentum on campus.
Jack Tirone, an Engineering junior and member of the ZBT Executive Board, explained that the blood drive was organized at the beginning of the year because students would be more enthusiastic and “fresh.”
According to ZBT’s press release, 2,800 fliers were passed out on Locust Walk.
“This is an event that we all get very excited about and our hope is that the campus expects to give blood at the ZBT drive every semester,” Mayrock wrote in an e-mail. “It’s very powerful to see our house get transformed into a mini-hospital.”
College junior Lindsay Nadkarni, president of Sigma Delta Tau, claimed that the sorority was looking for more opportunities to benefit the community and decided to collaborate with ZBT on the blood drive.
Nadkarni said that despite the success of SDT’s fall event hosted on behalf of Prevent Child Abuse in America, the organization was looking to expand its services to the public.
When Mayrock approached SDT about collaborating on the blood drive, she explained, “we jumped at the opportunity.”
“They have had very successful blood drives in the past,” Nadkarni wrote in an e-mail, adding that with SDT’s help, the blood drive could grow.
College sophomore and SDT sister Lauren Lubetsky wore the “Buddy the Blood Drop” costume on Locust Walk. “It was great to be anonymous like that,” she said.
From an unaffiliated perspective, Talia Goldberg, a College sophomore, thought the promotion for the blood drive was successful due to the charisma of the costumed figure of Buddy the Blood Drop. “The visual of the blood drop was really effective,” she said.
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