Issue date: 11/12/09 Section: Features

Media Credit: Marcy Hendricks Jose Lopez, senior economics major and president of Nu Alpha Kappa, addresses members. [Click to enlarge]

During an August Blood Source blood drive, the Nu Alpha Kappa fraternity at Sacramento State donated more than 150 hours to Univision, a Spanish-language television station. For its hard work, the fraternity was awarded the Hornets in the Community Award.

NAK, a Latino-based fraternity, earned the first of five Hornets in the Community Award. NAK was awarded by representatives from both Blood Source and Wells Fargo at a Hornet football game on Oct. 24.

Karlos Santos-Coy, Student Activities program adviser for leadership programs, said the $1,000 NAK was awarded was then given to Blood Source. Santos-Coy said Blood Source believed NAK was integral in helping to make the blood drive event successful.

"(The fraternity members) acted as translators and I don't think Blood Source had any Spanish translators," Santos-Coy said. "They educated people about blood and bone marrow donations and even entertained donors' children while donors were giving blood."

Jose Lopez, senior economy major and president of NAK, said the award the fraternity received makes the members want to continue giving back to the community

"Receiving the award has made us motivated. It makes us want to do a lot more," Lopez said. "It's good to get credit once in a while for what we do."

Angel Barajas, alumnus and former member of NAK, said the the fraternity has been helping with blood drives every year.

"We've been doing the blood drive, every chapter of the fraternity, since 1996," Barajas said. "It's our national event. In Sacramento, it's done by the Univision blood drive. They were seeking out help, such as translators who spoke Spanish (and) people to work and go over applications to donate blood. We've been doing the blood drive with Univision for the last three years. We registered over a couple thousand people."

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