Saturday’s football game wasn’t the only contest Michigan lost to the Buckeyes this weekend — Ohio State also claimed victory in the annual Blood Battle against the University.
The Blood Battle is hosted by the Alpha Phi Omega chapters at Ohio State and at Michigan. Alpha Phi Omega is a national co-ed community service fraternity that holds a number of community service events, including the Blood Battle.
The blood drive is an annual competition between the two chapters to see who can collect the most blood in the weeks before the hotly contested rivalry game in late November. Ohio State collected 1,874 pints of blood, while Michigan raised only 1,601 pints.
“We lost by a couple hundred pints, but we had way more volunteers than last year. We also had help from the Engineering Honor Society, and the Business Professionals of America,” said LSA Junior Stephanie Taylor, a chair of the drive.
But the Blood Battle is only one of many opportunities for students to volunteer on campus. Alpha Phi Omega and a multitude of other student organizations offer ways to get involved.
One such activity the fraternity supports is Knitwits, which consists of hand sewing mittens, hats and other such garments for those who wouldn’t have them otherwise. The fraternity holds a noncompetitive rush in the fall and winter, which consists of many different types of events, some of which are service projects.
Students can get involved through religious groups, the Greek system and other independent organizations as well. “I went with Orthodox Church Fellowship and did a park clean-up at an elementary school. We cut out buckthorn, which is an invasive species that forces out other plants,” said LSA freshman Jacob McGlaun. The fellowship sponsors many types of community service projects, as do numerous other church groups here at the University.
Many students say they have been able to volunteer through their fraternities and sororities. “We made coloring books and sold shirts that would raise money for a cancer charity, and there is a food drive in our house,” said LSA freshman Jessica Epstein, a member of Kappa Alpha Theta sorority.
Some Greek organizations are also getting involved in community service through many of the independent service organizations the University has to offer, including K-grams, The Detroit Project and Habitat for Humanity.
LSA freshman Leslie Unroe, a pledge for Delta Delta Delta, said the sorority will become involved in K-Grams, a student-run community service group that sponsors many different types of projects.
“There are about 2,000 students in our combined programs,” said K-Grams Executive Director and LSA senior Heather McManus. “Our mentoring program gets about 500 weekly volunteers from students outside of the res halls. We also hold the Kids Fair at the end of the year, during which we encourage people to have booths and get involved. This usually draws about 1500 people.”
K-grams’ main project is the pen-pal program, which links about 800 University students with local elementary students in a monthly letter exchange. They will be sponsoring three events on Dec. 3, venturing out to local elementary schools to interact with students.
The Detroit Project is another service program run entirely by University students. The Detroit Project gets involved with communities both in and surrounding Detroit and provides tutoring, test preparation and a variety of other types of projects. Its website has a list of more than 20 weekly projects, and their calendar lists many one-time projects. There will be an education forum held today at 8 p.m. in the Michigan Room of the Michigan League.