Not your average buddies - these co-workers are teaming up to save lives

By Jennifer Costa, regional communications director

“I can give like crazy. I’ve got great veins,” says Nancy Burt.

The employees at Rise Private Wealth Management are pretty good at turning anything into a competition.

Tara Davis, blood donor

“Couple of my friends and I have a running total on how quickly we can fill a bag – and if I beat my personal record, even more satisfaction,” says Tara Davis, another financial advisor with the firm.

At Rise, management is turning compassion into action, harnessing its team’s competitive spirit to help save lives alongside the American Red Cross. 

“We found that a lot of us would be talking about giving blood – and they said, ‘Oh, why don’t we have a little contest,'" Nancy explains.

And that’s how the “Blood Buddies” program at Rise was born. Here’s how it works: participating employees are paired with a co-worker, usually someone from another office or even another state. 

“It could be me with somebody in Florida or in Kansas or in Maine,” says Nancy, who works from the firm’s flagship office in Bedford, New Hampshire. 

“My blood buddy is in Bangor,” Tara says. “So as much as I’d love to get together and donate with her all the time, it’s not going to happen.” 

The only rule: each person has four months to give blood. Once they do, they’re entered into a drawing for a company prize – but only if both partners roll up a sleeve. 

“Which is where that accountability comes into play,” Tara says. “If for some reason you don’t give, it’s not yourself you are potentially letting down, it’s another partner on the team. Nobody wants to let their teammates down.”

Nancy Burt, blood donor

 Rise's Blood Buddies program celebrated its third anniversary this year – and continues to thrive with staff participation from each of its five states. The firm says the program has been successful in creating habitual donors and has found the buddy concept to be more effective than holding companywide blood drives. While the program has inspired many first timers, Tara and Nancy were regular blood donors before coming to Rise.

“I just gave my 43rd pint at St. James United Methodist Church,” Nancy says proudly.

It’s the same church where 44 years earlier, she made her very first donation. As a 17-year-old, she had no idea just how many times the need for blood would intersect with her life. 

“I just feel good donating,” she says. “Hopefully my blood sits on the shelf and doesn’t get used because that means somebody didn’t have a crisis. But if they do, I want it there.”

When Nancy was pregnant with her second child, she found out the placenta was positioned over a previous c-section scar. Doctors worried that it could grow into the uterine wall, creating a life-threatening hemorrhage risk. They told Nancy to find three donors to match her rare blood type in the event things went wrong during the delivery.

“I put the word out to friends and family,” Nancy remembers. “A cousin, a bother-in-law and a friend were all B+. They gave so the blood was ready for me. Thankfully, I did not need it – and I immediately signed a release so it could go to the general population. That was my first brush with needing blood.”

Nancy and her mother Patryce Cosgrove

Unfortunately, it was not her last. In 2016, her aunt was diagnosed with cancer and needed several units of blood during treatment. 

“And then five years ago my mom had triple bypass surgery. She was in the ICU and the aortic bypass ruptured. They had to open her up in the ICU, bedside, and gave her seven pints of blood and two pints of plasma. They saved her life. But these are the things you don’t think about,” Nancy says, “And it reinforces that, ‘Wow, this is why we give.’” 

“It’s quick and easy and literally something I do on my lunch break to help others,” says Tara, who works from the company’s Auburn, Maine location. “I have known people who have needed blood, whether it’s friends in accidents or my mother-in-law who had stage four lung cancer. When she was going through chemo, one week she needed multiple units of blood.”

It’s those unforeseen circumstances that keep Tara donating – a need for blood that never stops. She recently surpassed her two-gallon milestone just as unimaginable horror struck her community. On October 25th, a gunman opened fire in a bowling alley and a bar in Lewiston, Maine, killing 18 people and injuring 13 more. In response, the Red Cross provided 175 blood products to area hospitals. While the tragedy illustrates how important it is to have blood products readily available during an emergency, it’s also important to note every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood. 

“It really drives home how emergencies can happen at anytime, anywhere – and knowing that a blood donation that I had previously given might have been helpful, shines light on a situation that has been nothing but darkness,” Tara says. “A lot of people struggle financially to give back. Blood donation doesn’t cost anything but your time, and it’s an easy way to make sure if there is a tragedy in your area – or in your family – people will have the blood needed to potentially save a life.”

Blood donors are needed every day to help provide lifesaving blood products to hospital patients in need. If you’re looking for a meaningful way to give back, schedule an appointment to donate blood. It could change someone’s life. Visit redcrossblood.org to make an appointment.