RHA coordinates annual Blood Drives that occur in the fall and spring semesters, since 1978. This started as a one day event and has grown to a three day event requiring over 300 volunteers.

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The RHA/NRHH Blood Drive is a 3-day community event that takes place on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday once every semester at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. UW-Platteville’s RHA President coordinates the blood drive. He or she begins work the first week of the semester. This is necessary due to the largeness of the event. This spring, the RHA/NRHH Blood Drive brought in 752 good units of blood which is near our record of 806. Over 800 students, staff and faculty contributed to the count. About 300 students volunteered their time at the drive. The RHA/NRHH Blood Drive is ranked #1 for amounts of units collected among large universities on the Red Cross website. It is also in the top 20 for all blood drive in the United States. This couldn’t be done with the help of the RHA and NRHH Executive Boards. They assist the President Liz Oestreich, by completing tasks such as publicizing, getting volunteers, working with the Red Cross, receiving approval for various things like publicity, reserving the space, and ordering food for donors, among other duties. Because the Red Cross depends on this specific blood drive to bring in an enormous amount of units, publicity is a vital component to the drive. Posters go up around campus, slides are submitted to go on campus televisions, side-walk chalk is put on pavement the day before the drive, and people across campus share information with un-knowing students, staff and faculty. Many students choose to volunteer their time or donate their blood due to the possibility of extra credit. The President of RHA coordinates with UW-Platteville faculty, so that students can be motivated to volunteer or donate. 20 instructors gave extra credit to their students for this fall’s drive. Additionally, students may be motivated to donate or volunteer because of the Hall Competition. When students show up to volunteer or donate, they are logged into an excel sheet. After the drive, the President sorts the excel sheet by hall. The numbers are calculated, and the hall with the highest percentage of participation wins a pizza party. This year, the RHA/NRHH Blood Drive was also a part of UW-Platteville’s Homecoming. On the Tuesday of the drive, students could go to a Homecoming-ran table and sign-in for their organization or hall. This earned them points for the overall Homecoming Competition. It served as another form of motivation.

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To obtain viable units of blood for the Red Cross to use to save lives. Also, to give students, staff and faculty (and the wider community) an opportunity to give their time or their blood.

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The UW-Platteville community uses this as an opportunity to show how caring it is. The Red Cross relies on UW-Platteville's RHA/NRHH Blood Drive to bring in hundreds of units. Without this drive, Red Cross representatives have said they would have a severe shortage of blood in the area. The volunteers and donors realize at the drive that giving to others can be quick, easy and fun. Many volunteers and donors come back year after year, and Red Cross staff notices. Many times, Red Cross staff can pick out UW-Platteville community members who have been to the drive previously. It's an awesome experience for everyone.

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The RHA/NRHH Blood Drive is known as a favorite drive of the Red Cross staff. This is due to the fact that the drive is run very efficiently and effectively. After the first 15 minutes of the drive, the rest of the 3 days run extremely smooth. The only large downfall of the event is that there is sometimes a long wait to donate blood. The drive can get quite backed up because of a lack of Red Cross staff, and just because it takes that long to get people through the process. This spring for the most part the total time to give blood was under an hour and people are still so excited to donate and help that there is seldom ever complaints made.

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Other campuses can contact their local Red Cross, as well as UW-Platteville's RHA. Both can provide great information about running a successful drive.

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