The most valuable thing a person may possess is not in a safety deposit box, or hidden in an underwear drawer or even something shiny. It is something that everyone carries with them at all times. It flows through every vein and artery — that deep red vital juice that feeds every muscle in the body, keeping us alive. There is no substitute for blood.

Under normal circumstances, someone in the United States needs a blood transfusion every two seconds. In the time it takes to read that sentence, two lives will have been saved because of blood donations.

The American Red Cross has teamed up with campus organizations, such as fraternities, to host blood drives and raise awareness about the benefits of donating.

As a part of their philanthropy, members of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity lined up to bleed for a cause on Friday at the Wesley United Methodist Church. With 41 pints of blood donated, Philanthropy Chair Steve Ogdon, sophomore in Business, said the fraternity doubled the amount of blood compared to last year’s drive.

“That’s something to be proud of,” Ogdon said. “You’re saving a life. It’s not like raising money to help research something that might get cured. Blood itself can and will save lives.”

According to the American Red Cross, 38 percent of the population is eligible to donate, but only 8 percent actually do, requiring a constant need for blood. Sarah Johnson, a donor recruitment representative for the American Red Cross, said eligible donors can give blood six times per year.

“We’re in desperate need for blood products of all types right now,” Johnson said, although the Red Cross is not in a state of emergency for the region.

Johnson said teaming up with Greek organizations has proved beneficial for everyone involved and “makes it worth everybody’s time.”

“It’s definitely a wonderful outlet to host blood drives due to the fact that students involved in Greek life organizations have many network connections, [which] makes it a lot easier to recruit donors to meet patient needs,” she added.

For those students who have only ever bled orange and blue, donating for the first time can be scary, Ogdon said.

“It’s not as painful as you think it might be,” Ogdon said.

He has donated blood twice, and said the actual process takes most people six to ten minutes to create one unit, roughly one pint, of blood. One pint of blood can save up to three lives.

But for all its usability, donated blood has a short shelf life of 42 days.

“Blood is like food. It has an expiration date,” Johnson said. “That’s the reason why we have so many blood drives throughout the year – we consistently need it.”

Benjamin Jacober, junior in Business, has worked with the American Red Cross for the past two years running blood drives through his fraternity, Pi Kappa Alpha.

The fraternity hosted a blood drive at the McKinley Foundation on Wednesday and collected 30 units of blood.

“It’s something [my fraternity] has never thought twice about doing,” Jacober said. “I find it very rewarding. [Doing] this can make an immediate impact. You can give that blood to a victim in need.”