Battle of the Badges winner announced

(ABC 6 News) – Battle of the Badges is an annual summer campaign through the Mayo Clinic Blood Donation Program where local law enforcement, firefighters, and ambulance services compete to see who can have the most blood donations provided in their team’s name.

This year the campaign brought in 372 donations, which will save over 1,000 lives.

The winner of this year’s challenge is the Olmsted County Sheriff’s Office, having brought in 152 donations.

Dr. Justin Juskewitch is the Associate Medical Director of the Mayo Clinic Blood Donor Program. He says summer is one of the times of year when they see the biggest disconnect between the donations they receive, and the need for donors.

“A lot of our routine blood donors are actually away on vacation, and so when they’re away, they can’t be here donating blood. At the same time, summer is one of the high[est] times of blood utilization in the country because of trauma associated with the same travel that I just mentioned,” said Dr. Juskewitch.

After this year’s Battle of the Badges, their donations are at adequate levels, but there is still always the need for donations, especially platelet donations.

Dr. Juskewitch says it takes 100 blood donations per day to maintain the level of blood the donation center needs.

For more on Mayo Clinic’s Blood Donor Program, you can click here.