This Halloween, fake blood can make a scene—but real blood can make a difference.
Student teams at Queen’s will be participating in the Canadian Blood Services’ (CBS) ‘Fall Get Together campaign’ from Oct. 6 to Dec. 31. Throughout this campaign, 106 Canadian post-secondary schools will be competing to see who can earn the highest “Donor Point Average” (DPA)—a metric based on blood and plasma donations made my teams assembled at the University.
Jill Gemmiti, the community development manager for CBS’ Peterborough-Kingston chapter, talked to The Journal about the importance of donating blood and plasma this fall.
“Every time someone donates a unit of whole blood, it saves three people,” Gemmiti said in an interview. “Hospitals are demanding more; we just need to get more people donating on a regular basis.”
Students interested in donating can visit clinics running in the Biosciences Complex on Nov. 7 and Nov. 11 from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. While anyone eligible can donate, only students who have formed or joined teams can contribute to the University’s DPA. Team members who show up to their appointments are also eligible to win prizes from the CBS should Queen’s win the campaign.
While Gemmiti’s proud of how Queen’s students have shown up to donate in the past, she’s hoping this year the CBS can tap into the vast population of students who have yet to participate in their clinics.
“A lot of these students who are first-time donors, it’s a fear of the unknown,” she said. “But when they come with a group or a friend, it makes it a little bit easier. And then once they’ve been through the whole process, then they usually come back.”
The Queen’s University Blood Team (QUBT) is also encouraging students to donate blood and stem cell samples this fall. On Oct. 31, they will be hosting a haunted house in Gordon Brockington House, with a stem cell swabbing table located at its end. One of the QUBT Co-chairs, Christian Cataudella, HealthSci ’26, explained the importance of stem cell donation in an interview with The Journal.
“Stem cells are cells that can turn into any different type of cell in your body,” he said. “When somebody has cancer, or some sort of illness, and needs specific cells, these stem cells can convert into any type of cell that they need. This is why it’s so important to swab people, to see if they’re a match for somebody and able to donate their stem cells.”
The QUBT will also be running their ‘Life Bus’ throughout the semester, which drives students straight from campus to CBS blood donation clinics—with the next one taking place on Nov. 5.
“It’s completely free of charge,” Cataudella said. “You don’t have to worry about anything. You get a free pizza afterwards. It’s like your own little party bus with your friends.”
While the QUBT isn’t directly affiliated with the ‘Fall Get Together’ campaign, they’re excited to participate in the CBS’ Giving Games. The Games, which run in the winter semester, similarly pit post-secondary schools against each other to see who can collect the most donations.
“We [Queen’s] won [the Ontario leaderboard] last year,” Cataudella said. “And when we looked at the stats, we actually had the highest engagement of all post-secondary schools in Canada.”
Students wanting to donate stem cell samples can also attend the QUBT’s Fall Carnival, taking place in Wallace Hall on Nov. 4.
Tags
Blood Donation, Fall Get Together Campaign, QUBT, stem cells
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