Laurier receives Regional Partner Award with Canadian Blood Services

Wilfrid Laurier University received the 2021 Regional Partner Award with Canadian Blood Services.

The award celebrates Laurier’s decade-long commitment as a Partner for Life at the Canadian Blood Services. It recognizes the dedication and kindness of Laurier’s blood donors, whose donations support Canada’s lifeline.

“I’m happy to say that as an institution, we had set a goal of 350 donations and ended up doing 495. We knocked it out of the park, and I would say it’s really a team effort,” KP Anand, associate director of Business Development and Recreation said.

Since 2010, WLU has made an annual pledge for blood donations, accumulating over 5,000 units of blood that help patients in need.

“We were looking for a way to engage further with our community and met with a local Canadian Blood Services representative and came up with the idea for the “Blood Battle,” Anand explained.

Over the last two years, Laurier blood donors have donated 900 units with the help of the friendly competition between WLU and the University of Waterloo called the “Blood Battle.” 

Mobile clinics were stationed at monthly varsity sports games in this competition to promote blood donation.

“We thought we should set up a blood donation clinic on campus during those games to get people involved, and maybe we could get people signed up,” Anand said.

 However, due to COVID-19, mobile clinics and the Blood Battle were cancelled, leaving varsity students to resort to an all too familiar virtual plan.

“What we ended up doing was assigning one or two specific teams per month to go in and donate, and then they got their various stakeholders involved to get excited about the whole idea of it. It’s been a great way for us to continue to be engaged in an otherwise upside-down world with the pandemic,” Anand said.

Although Golden Hawks couldn’t raise donations in person, Laurier still exceeded its annual donation goals.

“What the shut down did was provide not only the community a chance to be involved, but our student-athletes as well as club athletes to be involved in something that was just as competitive, in such a wholesome way,” Anand said.

With blood donations continuing across campus, students and faculty across the Laurier campus strive to continue making blood donations and working with the community.

“We’re fortunate at Laurier that one of our pillars of strength is community and working with one another, and I think that’s where we shine as an institution and as a Regional Partner to Canadian Blood Services,” Anand said.

Leave a Reply