Utah State University Participates in 22nd Annual Blood Battle Against Weber State University
From Sept. 2–5, Utah State University participated in its 22nd annual Blood Battle against Weber State University with the American Red Cross of Utah. Hosted from 9 a.m.–6 p.m. each day in the TSC Sunburst Lounge, the annual blood drive encourages faculty, students, staff and community members to donate at their respective schools so one can win. The school that comes out on top gets a trophy, which is currently held by USU.
As stated on redcross.org, there is a trend with blood donations decreasing after Labor Day. Whether this is because people are busy starting school again or have other end-of-summer responsibilities, the need for blood remains constant year-round.
Donors were encouraged to make appointments, but walk-ins were also welcomed. WSU’s portion of the drive ran from Sept. 8–12.
Kimberli Trusty has been an account manager at Red Cross for 18 months. Her role is to help set up blood drives from Brigham City to Star Valley, Wyoming.
“I love Cache Valley,” Trusty said. “It’s so generous. You don’t really have to work to get people to donate like you do somewhere like Salt Lake.”
Trusty also worked at USU’s portion of the Blood Battle last year and found the turnout to seem lighter. In 2024, they struggled to get volunteers to check people in, but this year, they had more than enough.
Trusty explained how the winner is determined.
“We count the actual units of blood because we also have what’s called ‘Power Red,’ which requires you to be a certain height and weight,” Trusty said. “When they take your blood out, it cycles through a machine, and it separates out your plasma and your platelets, and we just keep the red cells. When they do that, we actually get two bags, so we can’t just count people.”
Nelda Ault-Dyslin is USU’s director of community-engaged learning. Her job is to help connect students to resources around Logan and citizens to resources on campus. It has been her job to oversee the Blood Battle.
“We have lots of folks eager to donate but for whatever reason weren’t able to,” Ault-Dyslin said. “Sometimes it’s things like students who travel and just got here, and this is also the age where people get tattoos and piercings or just had to get some vaccines to move into a dorm.”
Ault-Dyslin explained this can be a tricky time with school just staring up. Additionally, getting community members to commute up to campus and try to find parking can prove to be a challenge. Despite this, both Ault-Dyslin and Trusty felt USU would keep the trophy for another year.
“I don’t feel like we’ve got lower engagement than in past years, and we’ve had really great volunteer engagement,” Ault-Dyslin said. “Even the year that Weber had two locations, we still won.”
Something that Trusty felt could encourage more engagement is educating people about the different things their blood can go towards. One unit of blood can save up to three lives. The goal of the drive was 400 units, which could save up to 1,200 people. In the end, USU finished with 342 units.
“It’s not just people who are in car accidents or things like that. It’s moms having babies who sometimes lose a lot of blood. Premature babies take a certain blood type that helps them,” Trusty said. “Cancer patients need plasma, and people, especially the African American community, can struggle with sickle cell disease.”
Even Aggies who are unable to donate due to their health or a fear of needles have the opportunity to help out. Blood drives held at USU always need volunteers to help check people in, and information on upcoming events can be found at AggiePulse.
“Even if you have no health issues or whatever, sometimes you just don’t want to,” Ault said. “You can still help out at the table, and that still helps the cause.”