The William Pitt Union’s Lower Lounge looked like a hospital yesterday, but the people in the… The William Pitt Union’s Lower Lounge looked like a hospital yesterday, but the people in the beds were giving help, not getting it.

The semi-annual Blood Challenge between the armed forces’ Reserve Officers Training Corps began yesterday at Pitt and continues today at Carnegie Mellon. The Central Blood Bank sponsors the event.

“The competition really makes it fun,” said Sue Stonick, of the Pittsburgh-based bank, which serves more than 40 hospitals in the region.

“[The challenge] has gone on about 10 years,” Air Force Lieutenant Colonel T. Sykes said after giving blood. The Air Force ROTC, based in the Cathedral of Learning, won the trophy last spring.

“The trophy has been beaten up a little,” she said.

Central Blood Bank offered to repair the trophy, which goes to the Army, Air Force or Navy/Marines ROTC, depending on who wins, but everyone agrees the battered award has “character.”

Members of the services gave blood yesterday, along with individuals who donated toward their favorite branches. Pitt senior Gosia Bujak, a member of the Army ROTC’s “Panther Battalion,” recruited people in the Union lobby in the early afternoon.

“I’ve been saying that giving blood saves three people,” Bujak said, referring to the potential saving power of a pint of blood.

Recruitment is important among civilians because some service members have served in places where malaria and other diseases are present, restricting their abilities to donate blood.

ROTC members from Pitt, CMU, Duquesne, Chatham and other schools donated yesterday, and continue to today.

“I donate regularly,” said an Army ROTC member from Chatham. “It’s a great thing to do.”