Last night two NIU groups were honored for their efforts in coordinating and sponsoring blood drives on campus.

The Sigma Nu fraternity and the Residence Hall Association received plaques from the Aurora Area Blood Bank for their blood drives. The combined efforts of these two groups were responsible for more than 2,050 pints of blood donated last year.

“Sigma Nu, with approximately 50 members, is the smallest fraternity on the NIU campus,” said Aurora Blood Bank representative Kris Stutzman. “But with their two blood drives (in the fall and spring) this year, they managed to acquire over 250 donations for the blood bank.”

“The residence halls, in their two blood drives, provided 1,800 pints of blood, which was almost two-thirds of the total number of campus donations,” she said.

The awards were presented by DeKalb Mayor Greg Sparrow and Kishwaukee Community Hospital Administrator Wayne Fesler in a ceremony at the hospital.

“We’re really impressed with the number of students who have donated blood,” Stutzman said. “That’s why we’re sponsoring a competition again this year between NIU and Western Illinois University.”

The contest, which NIU won last year, will feature eight blood drives here and two on the smaller WIU campus.

“Because NIU is a much larger school than Western, the amount of donations will be judged on percentages rather than the actual number of pints of blood each school is responsible for,” Stutzman said.

“A lot of times people don’t bother to give blood because they don’t realize how important their one donation is,” she added. “Often the donation from one person can help to save three lives.”

Fear of contracting the disease AIDS is another reason people today sometimes forgo giving blood.

“Even though, rationally, people know that AIDS cannot be contracted by donating blood, it is such an emotional issue that often people listen to their hearts and not their heads and feel that they just ‘aren’t sure,'” Stutzman said.

The needle used fo blood donation is only used once and only on one person, so there is absolutely no possibility of a blood donor becoming infected with the AIDS virus in this manner.