Please purchase a subscription to read our premium content. If you have a subscription, please log in or sign up for an account on our website to continue.
Please log in, or sign up for a new account to continue reading.
Thank you for reading! We hope that you continue to enjoy our free content.
Partly to mostly cloudy with scattered showers and thunderstorms developing this afternoon. High 89F. Winds SSE at 5 to 10 mph. Chance of rain 40%..
Occasional showers with a thunderstorm possible. Low near 60F. Winds NNE at 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 60%.
Killeen Police Department Detective David Van Valkenburg washes Tower II, the biggest fire truck in the Killeen Fire Department fleet Friday after KPD lost a friendly blood drive competition between the two departments.
Killeen Police Department Assistant Chief Alex Gearhart, left, on Friday is greeted by Killeen Fire Department Chief James Kubinski after KFD won the Battle of the Badges Blood Drive for the second year in a row.
Killeen Police Department Assistant Chief Alex Gearhart on Friday washed Tower II, The biggest fire truck in the Killeen Fire Department’s fleet after KPD lost a friendly blood drive competition between the two departments.
Killeen Police Department Detective David Van Valkenburg washes Tower II, the biggest fire truck in the Killeen Fire Department fleet Friday after KPD lost a friendly blood drive competition between the two departments.
Killeen Police Department Assistant Chief Alex Gearhart, left, on Friday is greeted by Killeen Fire Department Chief James Kubinski after KFD won the Battle of the Badges Blood Drive for the second year in a row.
Killeen Police Department Assistant Chief Alex Gearhart on Friday washed Tower II, The biggest fire truck in the Killeen Fire Department’s fleet after KPD lost a friendly blood drive competition between the two departments.
As Killeen Fire Chief James Kubinski watched some of Killeen’s finest cops wash his fire trucks Friday, the city’s fire chief wore a smile that shone bright like the day’s afternoon sun.
That’s because this is the second year in a row the Killeen Fire Department has won Carter BloodCare’s Battle of the Badges Blood Drive — a friendly competition between KFD and the Killeen Police Department where whoever raised the least amount of blood donations has to wash the other’s vehicles.
“It’s really camaraderie between both departments,” Kubinski said as his 2-year-old golden-doodle, Ember, barked greetings to friends Friday afternoon. “We give each other a hard time, but it’s camaraderie. And it’s a great cause. Blood is a much-needed resource. It’s scarce.”
The actual number of blood units needed varies from month to month, but Stephanie Jardot with Carter BloodCare said they send the Advent and Seton hospitals in Killeen lots of blood.
“We probably send them around 1,000 units per month,” Jardot said Friday. “Sometimes it’s more. Sometimes it’s less.”
In a news release Thursday, city officials said this year’s blood drive competition saw “the community donate 92 units of blood, which can save about 276 lives.”
The official score this year was 48 blood donations from the fire department to the police department’s 42, the release said. In addition to department employees, residents could also declare which department they were donating blood for.
It wasn’t just KPD’s police academy recruits washing KFD’s trucks Friday. Some of Killeen’s top brass showed up and got to work with hoses and lots of soapy brushes that made quick work of the largest fire truck in Killeen’s fleet — Tower II.
“It’s all in good fun,” said Killeen’s Assistant Chief of Police Alex Gearhart, moments before he grabbed a hose and got to work.
Gearhart said those who weren’t able to donate can still donate at any local blood bank like the one at CarterBloodCare.org.
“We want folks to step up and donate,” Gearhart said. “Every time you donate, you can save a life.”
Kubinski said sometimes a single emergency patient might need all the emergency blood products a single blood bank has to offer.
“We’ve had a number of incidents … where we used all the blood in the bank to save that one person,” he said.
Your comment has been submitted.
There was a problem reporting this.
Keep it Clean. Please avoid obscene, vulgar, lewd, racist or sexually-oriented language. PLEASE TURN OFF YOUR CAPS LOCK. Don't Threaten. Threats of harming another person will not be tolerated. Be Truthful. Don't knowingly lie about anyone or anything. Be Nice. No racism, sexism or any sort of -ism that is degrading to another person. Be Proactive. Use the 'Report' link on each comment to let us know of abusive posts. Share with Us. We'd love to hear eyewitness accounts, the history behind an article.