While many fans showed their support for USC and UCLA by hosting parties and wearing school colors, City of Hope fans also displayed their pride by joining in the “Blood Bowl,” a special November promotion to recruit much-needed blood donors and celebrate the friendly rivalry between the two schools.
In the weeks leading to the UCLA-USC football game, whole-blood and platelet donors received a special Blood Bowl T-shirt with Trojan or Bruin team colors and an entry to put into the team raffle box of their choice. After the Dec. 1 game, which USC won 24-7, raffle tickets were drawn from the winning team’s basket.
“This year, the USC basket had a lot more entries than the UCLA one,” said Jill Schwarz, manager of whole blood and platelet recruitment at City of Hope, “but we had die-hard fans from both sides.”
The winners of this year’s raffle were Shawn Le from the Communications Department and longtime community donor Sergio Arizmendiz. Both received Outback Steakhouse dinner-for-two gift certificates.
But regardless of the teams, Schwarz noted that everyone involved in the Blood Bowl should feel proud for their contributions.
“More than 140 people signed up, and the event definitely helped us meet our whole-blood and platelet donation goals for November,” said Schwarz, adding that her department is already looking forward to the event again in 2008.
The Southern California Recruitment Association began the annual “Blood Bowl” 15 years ago, said Schwarz, and this was the second straight year that City of Hope participated.
