It’s 4 in a row for Blood Challenge champs

The University swept the 2005 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) Blood Challenge, winning the title for a fourth consecutive year. A record-setting 873 prospective donors turned out on campus Nov. 16 to donate 579 units of blood.

The fourth annual “Have a Heart” Blood Challenge broke all previous records for the third year in a row with 3,559 attempted donors and 2,697 productive units of blood collected from the 12 CAA campuses. Those totals represent a 28 percent increase in the amount of blood collected over the 2004 campaign and a remarkable 132 percent increase from the inaugural campaign in 2002. The “Have a Heart” Blood Challenge has become the single largest blood drive of the year for the Blood Bank of Delmarva.

Drexel University received the honor of collecting the most blood, with 605 units from 700 potential donors, earning special commendation from the CAA.

“We are extremely proud to be associated with such a worthwhile and life-saving project,” CAA Commissioner Tom Yeager said. “The credit for that success goes to the many volunteers and staff members on each of our campuses who put in a great deal of effort promoting and running the event, as well as all of the people who took time to donate blood.”