With two Khuddam and three Lajna, we had exactly five in a campus of nearly fifty thousand people, and thus started this AMSA.  As Khuddam are the ones who serve, we strove to serve many of those patients that are in the hospital and whose lives depend on this vital lifeline. Under the guidance from our Seattle Qaid Waqas Malik and the help of the Nazim Khidmat-e-Khalq Tuseef Chaudhry, the two khuddam at the University of Washington Tahir Ahmad and Adil Humayun, both who were from the Portland majlis before coming to college, along with a future khadim coming to this university Amyr Haq, we worked towards the promotion of this blood drive.

As this blood drive was truly our first major event, we didn't quite know the best ways to reach out nor did we know what to expect. However, we tried to reach out in as many ways as we could.  The University of Washington has an annual Student Activities Fair in the first week of fall quarter, where hundreds of Student Organization come out together, and table to promote themselves to others in a big square in the middle of campus. We took advantage of this by not only putting out our jammat literature and talking to Muslims and Non Muslims about Ahamadiyyat, but also by putting out flyers for the October 15^th blood drive.  We spoke with several other student organizations if they'd be interested in co-sponsoring this blood drive as well. Many officers of those organizations were also the friends and acquaintances of the Ahmadi students, and many of them made announcements in their own meetings. The Muslim Student Association's president also made an announcement during their last aftari dinner at UW regarding our blood drive. With the flyers already made by one Khadim for the Activities fair, they were posted in all major building's bulletin boards and in the Residence Halls a week to two weeks in advance.

On the morning of the blood drive, additional flyers, posters were placed all over the Husky Union Building (HUB). The HUB is the building where heavy people traffic moves through out the day. It is a location with large dining halls and several restaurants; some large classroom auditorium, ball rooms and even a bowling ally. It is literally considered the "HUB" of UW, and this is where the blood drive was held.  The flyers were placed strategically at spots where people need to look. As people wait in line to buy lunch, get utensils, check the time, watch the TV, get water, or throw stuff away, the flyers were placed on walls at the head of the lines, by the utensils racks, under the clocks, by the TVs, in front of water fountains, and above the garbage. Furthermore, little flyers folded in half in a shape of a tent were placed on top of the dining tables.

The success of a blood drive and getting people to donate isn't in advertisement alone, it is in reaching out personally to individuals. Seeing flyers and hearing announcements from unfamiliar people do great as far as reminders go, but they don't convince anyone to donate. "More people are willing to give you $25 then to let you put a needle in them" (PSBC representative). To convince someone one to donate, it has to come from another person; someone who they feel cares about them. The most effective people to do that to are your friends. This is why building that Social Network was important. Most officers are friends with their group members. Anyone who donates is either a friend that tells another friend, someone pre-convinced to give blood or someone who donates on a regular basis. The UW Ahmadi students also personally reached out to their friends asking them to give blood and to further pass the word. It was important to reach out with love and without being pushy.

The number of donors by the grace of Allah Almighty was 76. Overall, Alhammdulillah, Allah blessed our efforts in promoting this. A message from the Puget Sound Donor Resource Representative is as follows:

Tahir,

WOW!  We did great!  We were projected for 60 donors before your group got involved and I had increased the projection to 80 with all of the promotional efforts your group was doing and we hit it nearly right on the dot!  We ended up today with 76 donors and picked up 25 brand new, first time donors!  Don't forget 80% of these first time donors will continue to give the rest of their lives so thank you so much for introducing so many new people to the process of giving blood and giving the Gift of Life!

On behalf of the 218 patients here in the Northwest that will benefit from this single drive, please pass along my deepest thanks for their support, effort and time to the Ahmadiyya Muslim Student Association.

Please let us know if you'd like to co-sponsor another drive this school year.  We would love to work with you again for any campus blood drives!

Many thanks,

Madeline Haydon

Donor Resources Representative

Puget Sound Blood Center