(ABC 6 News)- Local police, fire and EMT departments are participating in Mayo Clinic’s Heroes United blood donation challenge, previously called Battle of the Badges.

This year’s challenge will look a little different as first responders from different departments will join together for one large blood drive.

Related: Battle of the Badges now Heroes United in this year’s blood donation challenge

“They work together to help those in need in our community as an entire team so they wanted to be able to pool all of their various organizations donations together into one large drive this year because that is how they operate in our community so that is how they should operate as part of this blood challenge,” said  Dr. Justin Juskewitch, the associate medical director for the Blood Donor Program.

This comes as Mayo Clinic puts out a call for donations to help meet an increased demand during the summer travel season. This is due to a decrease in donations from regular donors as they take vacations. There also tends to be more car accidents and trauma cases in the summer that will likely require blood transfusions.

Mayo Clinic has also expanded their daytime hour for those who want to donate blood, adding more time slots earlier in the day.

For more on the Heroes United blood donation program and how you can participate click here.