The Maucker Union Ballroom hosted Sigma Alpha Epsilon Red Cross blood drive Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
According to Erick Martin, senior social sciences education major, SAE has been working with the American Red Cross for a few years.
“It’s been going on for a while,” Martin said. “We started working with them a couple years back, small events, just kind of wherever they needed us, [and we] started developing a good partnership with them.”
SAE members volunteer 10 to 12 hours each semester and Martin said that the blood drive is where a lot of hours come from. “This is a big source for us. It’s the one we associate with when we recruit, hand out any information, PR, this is one of the big ones for us.”
By showing up at the event Friday or signing up for the blood drive when SAE was present in Maucker throughout the week, students could donate their blood.
However, students aren’t only limited to helping out through blood donations.
“They can help as volunteers, they can donate blood, there’s a bunch of other [options] that we have. We’re blood services here today but we also have a disaster, international relief, and a bunch of other services that the Red Cross covers,” said Bre Wiebers, a 2013 UNI graduate who currently works as a Red Cross account manager.
For Wiebers, the organization’s mission is what drew her to her job. “It’s kind of like a non-profit, help saving lives and being part of their mission.”
Though the Red Cross is an international organization, the donations from this particular drive will most likely stay in the United States.
“A lot of it actually stays right here in the hospitals, and the university is obviously big population to draw from and we usually do pretty good,” Martin said.
“I had the opportunity to help someone,” said Josh Dhainin, a sophomore accounting major and member of SAE.
Dhainin thinks that the American Red Cross is important because “they do a lot of good things I guess, saving lives with the blood.”
Though the blood drive is a major event for SAE, it is not the only organization they focus on. Aside from the American Red Cross, SAE has been working with the New Aldaya retirement village, Western Homes in Cedar Falls, the Cedar Valley Volunteer Center, and Dance Marathon to name a few.
They also hold smaller events that aren’t quite at the scale of Friday’s blood drive.
“I think any effort makes a difference and obviously with us we have 60 kids that are not only required, but they want to help. We have fun — it’s more of a social kind of hang out,” Martin said.
For participants, Martin mainly wanted them to take away the feeling of the experience.
“There is a certain feeling when you’re done, you feel like you’ve made a difference. It’s a gratifying kind of feeling,” Martin said. “If nothing else, that’s the bare minimum I want you to take away from the experience, but also, meet some people, just feel like a part of something.”
