If you’ve ever thought about donating blood, plasma, or stem cells, but don’t know where to start, the NextGen Club is here for you. In partnership with Canadian Blood Services (CBS), the club works to recruit new donors and raise awareness for the critical role donors have in saving lives every day.
To learn more about the NextGen Club, The Cascade sat down with the organization’s Vice President, Shameem Shaik, and President at the Abbotsford campus, Manjot Brar. The two co-founded UFV’s NextGen Club in 2023 alongside the club’s Awareness Manager, Balpreet Maan, via CBS’s NextGen Lifeline program — a resource for students to form donor recruitment teams on their campuses.
While blood donation is more commonly advocated for, the NextGen Club also works directly with Abbotsford’s plasma donor centre to emphasize the importance of plasma donations. According to Brar, the club focuses on recruiting plasma donors for the sake of convenience for potential donors, given how close UFV is to the centre.
“We promote plasma because it’s closest here [in] Abbotsford … but I think they’re both equally important.”
Plasma is a pale-yellow substance in your blood that helps with circulation and supports your immune system. It can be either directly transfused to patients in hospitals or made into medications known as plasma protein products. As Brar explained, plasma donations are necessary to further produce critical medications.
“You get to make a life-saving difference [by donating] because there’s so many diseases and disorders that plasma treats.”
As for what motivated Shaik and Brar to form the NextGen Club, Shaik explained how it’s emotionally fulfilling to be able to help others by recruiting donors.
“This patient, she had some kind of [immunodeficiency] … [and] she was talking about how helpful [donations are] and how it literally saved her life. So seeing that in-person firsthand … [and] seeing who’s receiving it on the other end was pretty impactful.”
As for Brar, her inspiration came from her dad’s involvement in Sikh Nation — one of CBS’s largest groups of donors and volunteers in their Partners for Life program.
“My dad donates a lot, and it impacted me to give as well. And I think it gives me a little bit of fulfillment because I get to make a life-saving difference, either through volunteering or donating.”
As Vice President, Shaik oversees the training process for all new members, whereas Brar’s role as president requires her to handle the club’s emails, contacts, and paperwork. Shaik shared that at the moment, the club’s long-term goal is to hire new executives to replace Brar and herself after they graduate.
“We are definitely wanting to get new executive members, because after we graduate, we want the club to keep going … So we’re currently looking for people.”
As for short-term ambitions, Shaik shared that the club hopes to make itself more well-known at UFV.
“Short-term goals, I’d say, is getting more people to join and raising more awareness. Because, as you said, a lot of people haven’t heard about us, so we’re working on that.”
Brar added that another one of the NextGen Club’s missions is to recruit more stem cell donors through their occasional swabbing events on campus.
“Since we started stem cells in, I believe in February, that’s [also] one of our short-term goals, to get more people to join the stem cell registry.”
While readers can often find the NextGen Club hosting tabling events in the Student Union Building (SUB), the organization also makes frequent appearances at various community gatherings like Berry Fest, the Kickback, and Canada Day Community Showcase events.
For readers who can’t donate, but still want to support CBS, Shaik and Brar encourage volunteering or joining the NextGen Club.
“You still make a life difference, because at a [donor] center, you’re still helping those people who are donating right there. You’re giving them drinks, you’re talking to them, you’re telling [them] how much [of a] difference they make. So you really are, at some point, making a difference, because you’re trying to make the experience for them unique and comfortable.”
Readers can find the NextGen Club through Rubric, Instagram (nextgenxufv), or by stopping by their upcoming tabling event on Oct. 30, 2025 in the SUB.
