DAYTON — Troy’s Aliya Stine hoped her “Be The Red” design would win a Lead The Way Scholarship, but she never guessed it would become the T-shirt worn by high school blood donors across the region. For “Be The Red” to be a winner, the first step was to apply.
Area high school seniors with clever campaign ideas for encouraging blood donations have until Friday, April 20, to enter the 2018 Community Blood Center/Vectren Lead The Way Creative Scholarship competition.
The $5,000 Lead The Way scholarship program is supported by a grant from Vectren. CBC and Vectren annually award $1,000 in college tuition assistance to five graduating, college-bound seniors whose high school hosts a CBC blood drive.
Scholarship applicants are challenged to design a winning marketing campaign for a high school blood drive. They must craft an original theme or slogan, explain why it would encourage students to donate, and creatively express the theme with conventional marketing techniques or innovative, artistic methods.
Stine’s 2017 “Be The Red” theme combined patriotism and unity with the common bond of blood donations. She designed a waving American flag with three red stripes, the others white and grey, and the slogan, “Without You There’s Only White and Blue – Be The Red.”
“Be The Red” is the current design of the CBC t-shirt given to all students who register to donate at high school blood drives this spring.
“It will be awesome to see people wearing it and being able to see it come to life,” said Stine, now a freshman at Mount Vernon Nazarene University. “I hope people are inspired to not only donate blood, but they are inspired to put themselves out there and apply for this scholarship.”
Applications must be postmarked by April 20. Mail applications to: Community Blood Center, 349 S. Main St., Dayton, OH 45402, Attn. Education Specialist/Lead The Way.
Examples of winning campaigns and the 2018 scholarship application are available at www.GivingBlood.org and at area high schools. For more information contact Cristina Pickle at [email protected].
