The decorations in the Ohio Union at a previous Blood Battle drive. Credit: Courtesy of Morgan Kaiser
Every Ohio State student is familiar with the rivalry between the Buckeyes and the Michigan Wolverines. From crossing out every letter “M” on campus and refusing to say the state’s name, the feud consumes every fiber of life on campus.
But there’s more to the duel besides football.
From Oct. 22 to Nov. 26, Buckeye Blood Club hosts Blood Battle, a competition between Ohio State and the University of Michigan to collect the most blood donation units.
The club hosts over 50 blood drives during the six-week period at various locations across campus, namely the Schottenstein Center, Ohio Union and Ohio Stadium.
Aidan Law, a third-year in molecular genetics and vice president of marketing for the club, is the one to create Instagram posts, flyers and other promotions across campus to create publicity for those blood drives, especially moving toward the end date.
November is when things get serious, especially with the pressure on Blood Club to remain victorious. Last year, the Buckeyes came out on top with 1,707 blood products compared to Michigan’s 1,407.
“I’m going to start really emphasizing that we [have] to beat that team up north again, because we have three consecutive wins right now. So, this would be our fourth,” Law said.
Often, Buckeye Blood will partner with other campus organizations to sponsor a drive, meaning members of these groups participate in the drive.
Soham Barot, a second-year in neuroscience and the club’s vice president of community outreach, works with both Versiti — the parent organization to Buckeye Blood Club — and different student clubs to get the process started.
“We’re talking to the nursing students on campus to get them to help out,” Barot said. “We definitely want to work with bigger clubs on campus, like [Undergraduate Student Government] and BuckeyeThon for sure.”
Morgan Kaiser, a fourth-year in neuroscience and the Buckeye Blood Club president, agreed that the club partnerships are mutually beneficial.
“[The clubs] don’t have to set it up, they don’t have to book a room, nothing,” Kaiser said. “Just adopt the drive, and then we market on our end.”
Buckeye Blood Club has also started providing donated blood with Nationwide Children’s Hospital in an effort to make the cause more local to Ohio State students.
“Collaborating with them or doing a blood drive at Nationwide would be beneficial to everyone,” Barot said.
One donation can save up to three lives.
“A basic donation could be separated into three different components,” Kaiser said. “Those three different components could go to three different people to save their lives or be used in different medicines; really, any different sort of situation.”
Blood donations are used for more than the stereotypical image of a trauma patient in a medical drama, making the cause even more important.
“You never know who could benefit from blood donation,” Kaiser said. “It’s also people with chronic blood disorders, cancer patients get blood almost every single day, things like that.”
With that in mind, a donation could be used by anyone in the Ohio State community, college-aged or not.
“The fact that all of the blood donated on campus goes towards Wexner Medical Center means that you’re directly helping people in the community,” Kaiser said. “You literally could be helping the person who just walked by the table just now. That’s who your donation could help save.”
A drive will be hosted at Ohio Stadium on Tuesday and in the Ohio Union from Wednesday to Thursday. More information on dates, locations and how to register can be found here.
“It’s cool using the rivalry from football and then empowering it to be ‘Hey, we [have] to beat our rivals,’” Law said. “It’s a win-win. We [might] beat Michigan, but also we’re saving so many lives.”
