Chief Robert F. Rennick

Jefferson City, Missouri, Fire Department
Donor

Giving blood is no fun, right? Chief Robert Rennick of the Jefferson City, Missouri, Fire Department would disagree.

About 15 years ago, Chief Rennick got together with a group of colleagues in emergency services and government who call themselves the County Chiefs. Included in this rather loose organization are officials representing city and county service such as the fire department, ambulance service, police department, sheriff's department, public works, emergency management, even a couple of county commissioners.

At one of their monthly meetings, the County Chiefs came up with an idea. The Community Blood Center in Jefferson City had approached Chief Rennick about helping to promote blood drives. When the chief mentioned this request to his colleagues, they realized a blood drive could be a great way to satisfy their competitive urges. Why not use a friendly competition to support the community and reach out to the public?

Thus was born the Jefferson City Battle for Blood. When the Blood Center needs a bump in donations, the County Chiefs get the word out, bring their fire trucks and ambulances and police cars to a local school and hand civilian blood donors a checklist of local emergency services organizations. The donors are invited to exchange a vote for their favorite organizations for a pint of blood. It's great for public relations, and it garners a lot of donations.

“It's an example of the down-to-earth, let's get to it attitude that you find in the emergency services fields,“ says Chief Rennick. “There's not a lot of wasted effort. We know it's important. We have to get the blood collected. So we do it.“

Please share your experience as a blood donor or transfusion recipient.