With a name tag on her shirt and a smile on her face, Paula Dayton, donor recruitment coordinator for the UI Hospitals and Clinics, sought volunteers for their blood.

And in fewer than two hours on Wednesday, 29 volunteers had signed up for more information on donating.

“We just always need more,” Dayton said from behind a tri-fold poster display. “It’s an ongoing need.”

The UI Volunteer Fair drew roughly 1,100 students to the IMU Main Lounge, more than doubling last year’s participation.

Volunteers were greeted by 10,000 Hours staff members and given a map of the vendors.

Participants were also issued a “UI Volunteer Fair Passport,” which granted them a free T-shirt if they spoke with eight organization representatives.

So many volunteers attended that the lime-green shirts ran out, and when Larry Hau, executive director of operations for 10,000 Hours, checked the number of volunteers halfway through the event, he was ecstatic when he discovered it had reached last year’s total.

The 10,000 Hours group provided another incentive. Through the organization, which was conceived by a group of UI undergraduates in 2002, students register their volunteer hours on the website, logging at least 10 hours for the year. That allows them to attend the 10,000 Hours Show, which brought the performer Girl Talk to the IMU last year.

More than 500 volunteers racked up more than 19,000 hours for last spring’s 10,000 Hours Show, according to the group’s website.

With around 75 organizations at the fair, Kelly Jo Karnes of the Office of Student Life said there was something for everyone.

“If people walk in and can’t find something, they’re not trying hard enough,” she said.

“It makes me feel better to know I’m giving back,” said Hameed, who noted prior volunteering motivated her to get more involved.

Roughly 8.24 million Americans between 16 and 24 volunteered in 2008, according to the Corporation for National and Community Service, a national partnership that monitors civic engagement.

And a new UI initiative called Pick One requires all incoming freshmen to choose one out-of-class activity — including volunteering with a local organization — by Oct. 1.

One vendor, Mitchell Swinton, the founder of the Lil Racer Car Club, came to the fair for the first time.

The program provides entertainment — such as Easter egg hunts and candy giveaways — for around 700 children when their parents bring them to three local racetracks.

“A kid should not have to pay to have fun,” said Swinton, who works as a UI custodian in the Main Library.

In the end, the consensus was volunteering benefits both the students and agencies.

Emily Grieves, the executive director of 10,000 Hours, said she hopes students who attend the fair will find out volunteering is “fun and exciting.”

“It gives students a taste of volunteering,” she said, and she hopes the experience keeps students involved for the rest of their lives.