Staff, faculty invited to donate blood for Span Plan’s annual service event
Last updated: August 22nd, 2022
Span Plan nontraditional students are kicking off Purdue’s football season with their “Rush in to Donate” blood drive, the program’s annual community service event.
Keara Ludiker, director of Span Plan, said students in her program started organizing service events a few years ago to give back to the community. Their efforts have grown every year since.
“We look at this opportunity as a way to give a little love back to the community and pick a service project each year that our students are invested in.”
Ludiker knows says Span Plan students have passions outside of school, and when it comes time to select the act of service each year, Ludiker looks to her students for help. For its inaugural community service event, Span Plan donated succulent plants to the Indiana Veterans Home in honor of a student coach who had served in the military. Last year, another Span Plan student inspired the program to hold its first blood drive.
Mary Keller, Purdue student and Span Plan student coach, is an active blood donor. Keller has been donating blood for 17 years and understands its impact on the community. “One donation (around 1 pint of whole blood) can be used to help up to three other people,” Keller said. “Donating blood is an easy way to make a big difference! It literally saves lives.”
Keller urges anyone who can donate to sign up for Span Plan’s blood drive. It will take place from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 1, in the first-floor lobby of the Krach Leadership Center. All the blood will be donated to Versiti Blood Center of Indiana. To sign up for a time slot, please visit Versiti’s website . All students who participate will receive a $10 Amazon e-card as a thank you for donating.
Mary Keller of Purdue Span Plan poses with the Boilermaker Xtra Special
The benefits of Span Plan’s service projects are two-fold. Not only do they give back to the community, but they also raise awareness for the Span Plan program and all the great things nontraditional students do to help the Purdue community.
“Oftentimes, our students can be limited in the interactions they’re able to participate in or feel comfortable participating in, so having the opportunities that we create that can bring other students together and the campus community together is a really great affirmation and a great example of how at the end of the day, we’re all a community,” Ludiker says.
Span Plan recognizes that students at Purdue have broad and varying experiences. Employees like Ludiker and Keller focus on providing resources for over 700 nontraditional undergraduate students at Purdue. Whether students are financially independent, married or have children, Span Plan wants to support them during their time as a Boilermaker.
One of the many ways Span Plan supports its students is by employing student coaches. These coaches act as a point of contact for all nontraditional students who have questions, want to find more resources, or need help resolving a problem. The student coaching program gives Span Plan members a way to connect with another Purdue student who may have faced similar obstacles during their time as an undergraduate student. Among this group of coaches is Mary Keller.
Keller has been a student coach for Span Plan since August of 2020 and has taken on a peer mentoring role.
“For me, the most rewarding part of being a Student Coach is in being able to help another student resolve a problem they’ve encountered here at Purdue,” Keller said. “That can be something as simple as letting a classmate know that they’re not the only nontraditional student in the room, or as involved as trying to create ways to put nontraditional students on an equal footing with their more traditional peers.
“I’ve seen our office truly help students who felt like they were alone and struggling in a system not designed for them.”
You can find more information on the Span Plan website for anyone interested in learning more about nontraditional student resources, events, or student coaching.
Andrea Mattingly
Director of Communications for Student Success Programs, andrea@purdue.edu