Blood Battle 2022 Results
The Battle Rages On – Once again, the Cities of Ishpeming and Negaunee teamed-up with the U.P. Regional Blood Center to continue the Annual Blood Fight. This fight to fill the blood bank has both City Managers Craig Cugini (Ishpeming) and Nate Heffron (Negaunee) competing to see which city can raise the most pints of blood for the region.
Similarly, to last year, the cities competed by seeking blood donations on dates specified, one for each city, to be collected and counted by the U.P. Regional Blood Center personnel. The city with the most pints collected on their day, is declared the winner and receive an honorary blood drive trophy for display over the next year.
In 2021, Negaunee was challenged by Ishpeming after Cugini due to the blood shortage in the UP. Being a former member of the military, Cugini developed this challenge and coordinated it with Heffron as a creative way to increase awareness and donations.
“We both thought it was a clever idea to play off of the rivalry that both schools had between each other, Cugini said.
In 2021, Ishpeming held their event at the Ishpeming Senior Center and Negaunee five-days later at the Negaunee High School. However, this year Cugini and Heffron decided that the engagement by the schools should be more of the focus. Both the Ishpeming and Negaunee High Schools agreed that this could be a great way to engage students and encourage learning about the process, critical shortages for blood and instill a spirit of giving.
The events were held in 2022 were held on November 9th and Ishpeming held theirs on November 22nd. Each high School utilized the National Honor Society students as the organizers and an opportunity to apply some lessons towards hosting and supporting events. Since Negaunee took home the trophy last year, they were first to go in this 2022 competition.
“I want to thank all of our sponsors and especially the Negaunee & Ishpeming National Honor Society students who made these events this happen. It is also important to send a special thank you to all those students and residents that came in to give the gift of life, your donation go a long way to support persons in need”, Heffron Said.
‘Another great showing of community support! I excited that Ishpeming High School was able to participate and really kick our drive into a higher gear this year”, The High School Administration rallied behind the Students who came out of their corner punching a real testament to the Esprit de Corps, Cugini said.
The Final Tally for the 2022 Blood Fight had Ishpeming come out on top of a fiercely fought and very close match-up. The Ishpeming students led the fight with a total of 45 total pints collected. Negaunee kept their hopes of a repeat alive as they kicked off the competition collecting 36 pints.
This year the trophy will move to the Ishpeming High School for display until the 2023 competition concludes and it is up for grabs once again. A trophy presentation will be held at the Ishpeming High School, on December 7th, at 1PM.
Both Cities expressed thanks to the U.P. Regional Blood Center, Lake Superior Community Partnership in developing and coordinating this event. Also noted by both City Managers, was the significant support by local business, organizations sharing information and encouraging participation in this Fight.
The term “Blood Fight” is used as a catchy phrase to capture the essence of local competitive spirit between the two cities and bring to light the necessity of donating blood. Each unit of blood collected represents three lives saved. This Blood fight has raised a total of 81 Pints representing 243 lives saved (2022). A collective total for the two years combined has resulted in 158 pints of blood and 474 lives saved (2021 & 2022). This is only made possible by the generosity and caring of these two towns working together for the greater good of the Region.
Questions concerning this release may be directed to the attention of City Manager, Craig Cugini at (906) 485-1091 ext. 204, and City Manager Nate Heffron at (906) 475-7700 ext. 11.