From Sept. 11 to 15, Weber State University students, faculty and staff have the opportunity to donate blood as a part of community outreach with the American Red Cross.

Weber State has two annual blood drives one in the fall and one in the spring. The fall blood drive is WSU’s annual Blood Battle with Utah State University.

This year is the 20th Blood Battle, donors will receive a 20th Anniversary T-shirt and a pair of football tickets.

The question on everyone’s mind is: who has been the reigning champion of this two decade battle?

“Oh, it’s USU every year,” Teresa Martinez, Student Coordinator for the Center for Community Engaged Learning said. “As they have more foot traffic, being a campus school and we being a commuter school, it’s no contest.”

Being a commuter school isn’t the only issue Weber State faces in this contest. Only 2% of people in the United States donate blood and at Weber it’s even less, according to Martinez.

CCEL works with many community partners, like the American Red Cross to combat social issues.

“Connections,” Martinez said. “Personal connections to an issue causes anyone to get involved. Blood donation is no different.”

Martinez frequently sees the updates coming in in regards to the blood drives. The numbers are staggering but the drop has deepened post-pandemic.

“People will be more apt to do something if they’re doing it together,” Martinez said.

Martinez encourages individuals to make a plan to donate. But, people are hesitant.

“People are scared to give blood. Everyone has blood but because it’s their blood, they want to know why and where their blood is going,” Martinez said.

CCEL and the American Red Cross are striving to find new methods to encourage people to give blood at blood drives.

WSU saw an extremely busy day Sept. 11 with 64 units of blood donated.

“If people come together at our blood drives, we could get 80 units of blood a day easily,” Martinez said. “We could beat USU in this blood drive, no problem.”