8,000 Units of Blood!
The Warrensburg Fire and Police Departments were recently recognized as the top Government Organization Blood Drive by the Community Blood Center of Greater Kansas City for 2023. We have been hosting multiple blood drives a year since 2006. In that time, over 8000 units of blood have been collected, potentially saving more than 24,000 lives! In 2024 we will host six blood drives. The WFD/WPD Blood Drives were started by retired Warrensburg Police Corporal Tom Carey. With his retirement in 2020, Division Chief Jeremy VanWey took over as the Blood Drive Chairperson.
Have you ever donated blood? Would your department consider hosting blood drives? As members of the Missouri Fire Service, we regularly see the need for blood in our communities. What a wonderful additional way that we can serve our communities! Each blood donation can save up to three lives. I challenge all of you to support your communities by hosting a drive. If your agency doesn’t have the ability on your own, find a neighboring agency to work together with to make it happen. What do you need to host a drive? The Community Blood Center asks for the following two things:
A place to host. For indoors, we look for a room that is at least 1,000 square feet with good lighting and temperature control. If that is not an option, we do have a mobile bus we can bring that only requires a flat parking surface the size of about 6-8 parking spaces.
People to bring in the door. The CBC helps with this from beginning to end by providing marketing materials and brainstorming ways to promote the drive to your group.
It is a relatively small commitment to a great cause that can help many in our local communities. In Warrensburg, we also partner with the Matthews-Crawford American Legion Post 131. WFD/WPD drives are held at the American Legion Post.
If you are in west central Missouri, you can contact the Community Blood Center of Greater Kansas City, at www.savealifenow.org. If you are in southern Missouri, you can contact the Community Blood Center of the Ozarks, at www.cbco.org. There may be additional organizations in your specific area, such as the American Red Cross, that would be able to help you organize a blood drive. For more information on starting a drive or to see how Warrensburg Fire and Police Department work together, contact Division Chief VanWey at 660-262-4654.
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