Greek blood drive gets interrupted

Some Penn Greeks who hoped to donate blood yesterday will have to wait another week.

Yesterday afternoon, Penn fraternities and sororities held their annual Greek Blood Drive in Houston Hall. But the blood drive was unexpectedly cut short due to a scheduling mistake of the room where the event was taking place.

According to Shawn Woodhull, Wharton senior and Interfraternity Council president, the original goal of the event was to break last year’s record of 119 pints of blood donated.

According to blood drive organizer and Wharton junior Christian Lunoe, the event was “well on [its] way to beating that goal” before it was cut short.

He estimated the event would have had 130 pints of blood donated without the interruption. When the event was shut down, they had already received 75 pints of blood.

Lunoe said the planners of the event are now working with the Red Cross and the University to schedule a makeup blood drive.

The makeup drive is being tentatively planned for Oct. 6 — during Greek Week — and will most likely be held from 1 p.m. until 7 p.m. in Houston Hall.

A makeup drive will give people who missed their appointments and people who had their appointment canceled a second chance to donate.

Additionally, Lunoe said there was a large number of walk-in donors who did not have appointments and who were waiting when the drive unexpectedly ended.

“The great thing is that, otherwise, there would have been no way to accommodate all of the donors without appointments,” said Lunoe, who sees the makeup drive as an opportunity rather than a setback.

Traditionally, the Greek organizations with the highest turnout and the highest percentage of members donating receive prizes, according to Woodhull.

These prizes will not be determined until after the makeup blood drive.

Lunoe attributed this year’s high turnout to the event planners’ utilization of Facebook as a means for advertising.

Through Facebook, donors were able to access the Red Cross website to sign up for appointments online.

This year, 120 online appointments were made — 100 more than last year.

Lunoe believes Facebook also helped attract many non-Greeks to the Greek Blood Drive this year who may not have gotten involved otherwise.

“We had help from the Penn community at large ... not just from Greeks,” he said.

“Overall, we had a ton of people and were doing great,” he added. “We’d really like to thank everyone who participated.”

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