Temple University - Templar Yearbook (Philadelphia, PA)

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special Events 1 ' ilifKiili Blood Drive 24 Oktoberfest 26 AIDS Quilt 28 Blizzard 32 Homecoming 34 Spring Fling 38 (above) Thousands of students fill campus streets for Temple ' s annual Spring Fling festivities, (photo by Simcox) (left) Although snovv ' is seldom seen on campus, when it comes down. . .it hits HARD, (photo by Sheeder) Events LIFE 23

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Temple Keeps the Blood Flowing This lifesaver shows that the key to giving blood is to re- main comfort- able, (photo by Janoso) by Tracey I. Johnson Who said blue blood beats red blood? When Temple Owls pitted themselves against arch rival Penn State ' s Nittany Lions in a student body competition, blood flow ed to save lives. After the last drop was counted, red defeated blue to claim the Lifesaver Cup Trophy. The Lifesaver Cup came home after February ' s month long donating com- petition between the two universities. The American Red Cross organized the drive and Temple ' s Public Relations Stu- dent Society of America (PRSSA) spon- sored it on campus with a call to Give Blood and Gain Victory. We decided to do an attention getting competition as a way to interest people in giving blood in a fun way, said An- drea Dunn, college donation program di- rector for the Red Cross ' s Penn-Jersey Regi on. Temple not only showed school spirit, but students and staff alike worked together to make this compe- tition a great success. The competition originated two years ago after other regional universities held successful blood competitions. Support was so positive that Dunn decided to try a competition here when blood inven- tory levels in southeastern Pennsylvania dropped. She chose Penn State as Tem- ple ' s state school counterpart because many students there come from the Phil- adelphia region and know Temple stu- dents. Temple lost two years ago. Dunn credits two PRSSA members who served as event coordinators, Shelia Colon and Thomas Strachan, with this year ' s success. They researched and pro- moted the event in a visual way that drew attention to the blood shortage and motivated students to donate. Temple ' s five campuses came together in the fight by organizing drives within their schools. Colon found the competition both exciting and exhausting. She and Strachan met frequently with Dunn to plan the event and prepare its kick-off press conference. The Nittany Lion came to accept Temple ' s official challengs. Af- ter the kickoff landed on WPVI — Chan- nel Six ' s 5PM Action News show. Co- lon said she and Strachan were on call all the time. The victory conference, where Dean of Students Kristl Wiemicki accepted the Trophy, was covered by Jim Gardner on WPVI ' s 6PM news. Strachan, who me- diated both conferences, never expected the coverage Temple received. I ' m still in awe, Strachan said. I got involved because I was aware of the shortage of blood, not only in the area but probably in the country. The Life- saver Cup was a good cause and made for positive campaign. Donating blood is a serious business. Dunn said that 691 people donated during the competition. For each pint given, three people benefit. The blood gets divided into plasma for bum victims, red cells for trauma and surgery patients and platelets which go to the number one users of blood — cancer patients. With 691 pints, that equals 2,073 people who recieved some type of blood product from the com- petition, Dunn said. After Hurricane Andrew, the Red Cross depleted area reserves here by sending blood to Rorida. According to Susan Snyder, the Red Cross ' s Penn- Jersey branch spokeswoman, blood sup- plies were already down due to typical decreases in donors from bad weather conditions, vdnter blues and various ill- nesses. The need for blood is critical, Snyder said. Our program is part of a regional program which must collect at least 1,750 pints of blood each day to maintain safe inventories for the 94 hos- pitals we serve. After issuing the call for students to roll up their sleeves, PRSSA members loggesd Temple ' s progress on a ther- mometer on the Student Activities Cent- er ' s patio area. After tallying the final pints. Temple achieved 89% of their pre- determined donation goal of 720 pints, while Penn State only achieved 72% of their goal (larger because of their school ' s population) of 1200 pints. The Owls declared victory. We beat Penn State and we saved a lot of lives, Colon said. I think this was something positive that we all came to- gether and showed school spirit to com- pete in a university service effort. In the spirit of competition, fellow PR- SSA member Catherine Engel did not sit on ceremony. She enthusiastically summed up the Lion ' s defeat with a vic- tory whoop, We wiped them out! 24 LIFE Events Lifesaver Cup