The City of Plano held a blood drive with a coinciding competition. The Battle of the Badges encourages Plano residents to donate blood and cast a vote for either the Plano Police Department or the Plano Fire Department.
On July 13, the Plano Fire Department was declared the winner via Facebook. There were 433 total votes, with 296 for the fire department and 137 for the police. This is the first win for the fire department since 2006.
“Thank you to everyone who participated,” the post reads. “This year’s donations equate to saving over 1,100 lives based on what was collected.”
Summer months have fewer blood donation appointments, according to the Stanford Blood Center, because families often travel away during the summer and there are few, if any, school blood drives.
“A lot of people are surprised to find out that 25% of the community blood supply is collected through high school blood drives,” Carter BloodCare spokesperson James Black said to CBS News. “So when our student donors are on break, it really has a ripple effect on the overall community blood supply.”
The CDC likened the nation’s blood supply to gas in a fuel tank. The blood supply must continually be added to to keep up with the need of hospitals. A US patient needs a blood transfusion every two seconds, according to the CDC, and right now the amount of blood, especially O+ and O- blood, is low.
“Each day, the Red Cross must collect nearly 13,000 blood donations for patients at about 2,500 hospitals nationwide,” American Red Cross spokesperson Rodney Wilson said. “This need doesn’t stop for the season, weather, holiday, or a pandemic.”
