“We’re already a service organization, we’re all already dedicated to this kind of service and I think blood donation is a big need, especially among soldiers,” said Brady Bialek ’14, a member of Dickinson’s Reserve Officer Training Core (ROTC) and an organizer of this year’s ROTC annual blood drive with the Central Pennsylvania Blood Bank.

Bialek ’14 and ROTC first sergeant Tucker Connard ’14 explained how they, along with senior ROTC member Tim Carr ’13, headed the drive this year, delegating the promotional responsibility within their own ranks while they focused on ensuring a smooth transition for the workers and doctors of the Central Pennsylvania Blood Bank throughout the drive. “Our job is to make it easy for them,” said Bialek as he defined ROTC as “the middle man between Dickinson and the bank.”

For a school of such small size, Dickinson has consistently broken the projected number of blood units – each one equivalent to a pint of blood – in the past years, both in ROTC blood drives and drives organized by other organizations. In 2011 ROTC and the fraternity Sigma Alpha Epsilon raised a total of 150 units.

This year ROTC was able to raise 80 units, according to Bialek and Connard.  During the slowest points in the drive, “one out of the two people who walked in the door would walk in for the drive” – an encouraging sight for these event leaders.

“If you can give blood, there’s really no excuse not to,” said Bialek.

Although these men can attest to the initial fear surrounding giving blood for the first time, Connard shared a story about one of our own Dickinson employees’ past experiences that may make one think twice about the cost-benefit of donating a little bit of blood. This woman shared with the first sergeant her contribution over the past ten years of over 150 gallons of blood – an admirable achievement in itself.

Despite this appeal of giving to good cause, these ROTC leaders shared that the process involved nothing more than one or two sheets of paperwork, a test for levels of hemoglobin and iron and drawing of blood.

A similar blood drive was held by the sororities Delta Nu and Phi Delta Theta on Wednesday, Feb. 20 at 10 a.m. in the HUB Social Hall.