Volunteers are often considered the lifeblood of an organization, but never is that more apparent than for the conscientious people who visit Canadian Blood Services (CBS) to donate a pint of their own.

Last spring, the University of Lethbridge became a proud Partner for Life with CBS, meaning that the U of L is committed to supplying a minimum number of donations from faculty, staff and students. Over the past several months, members of the U of L community have been transported on the CBS Lifebus to the local donation centre, working hard toward reaching the goal of 150 units of blood.

Shamus Neeson, the community development co-ordinator for CBS, is excited about the enthusiastic response from the University.

"I'm very happy about the strong partnership we have with the U of L," he says. "I'm really looking forward to continuing the relationship and increasing our donor numbers in the coming years."

Canadian Blood Services established the U of L connection with the generous help of Faculty of Management Accounting Assistant, Patti Leeb, and accounting faculty member, Carla Carnaghan. Leeb and Carnaghan worked to share news of the Partners for Life initiative through various communications channels on campus, and are continuing to try and increase donor numbers.

To date, participation in the program has been mainly from faculty and staff at the U of L, and Neeson is hoping to see more student donors in the future. There are still more than 14,600 new donors required in Alberta alone this year and greater student representation could help fill that need. To that end, two student teams from MGT 3250 (Social Marketing) will be working with Leeb, Carnaghan and Neeson to better reach students on campus.

"I would really love to see every eligible faculty member, staff and student from the U of L be committed to donating blood on a regular basis and truly make an impact on saving lives," says Leeb.

When 2012 draws to a close, Neeson and Leeb will take stock of the success of the program and work to establish a new, perhaps more ambitious, donation goal for 2013.

If you are interested in becoming a part of the University of Lethbridge's Partners for Life team, you may:

1) Log onto the website www.blood.ca/joinpartnersforlife and complete an online form with the U of L Partner ID Number "UNIV012637" and your personal information.

2) Complete the membership form and forward to Patti Leeb by e-mail (leeb@uleth.ca) or by campus mail c/o Patti Leeb, Faculty of Management to be collected and directed to Blood Services.