Click here for more photos

!-

Click here to read the Specifications

–>

First, you locate the local blood center, one that has good mobile equipment. We deal with United Blood Services here in El Paso. Some centers only have equipment at their offices, you need to find one that has the ability to bring ten or twenty chairs out, set up five to ten interview booths and draw 300 to 500 units of blood over the course of three days. Once you’ve located your partner, you’ve got to come up with a great raffle prize. We started by providing a new Sportster. This is quite expensive, but sometimes the marketing person at the blood center can help you find a corporate sponsor to share in the expense. Then that company gets their named tagged on all the advertising: TV, radio, flyers, posters, etc. Next you find five to ten smaller businesses to donate small gifts to the donors. We’ve gotten coupons from restaurants, free paint ball visit coupons, just about anything you can imagine that can issue a coupon. You need about 300 to 500 each of the smaller prizes. Our shop donates sun glasses, key chains, bandanas, things like this. These gifts are all put in a plastic gift bag and given to each donor after the donation when they are signing up for the grand prize raffle bike. Your can also ask pizza places, Starbucks, ice cream parlors, etc for food for the days of the event. All of these sponsors get listed on all your advertising materials. And if your city keeps a black book of Biker Friendly stores, you can list them in there in return for supporting your event.

If the city is large enough, there will be a marketing coordinator at the blood center to help you with the media. At first you may have to rely on media donating their commercials to you. But if your drive is successful, the blood center will usually purchase some time on radio and TV and get some free. The stations that give you double or triple the time for a set price become sponsors as well. You then print out a flyer for everyone in your business database, set a date that doesn’t conflict with any local rides or major sport games on TV. You will get the most help from your local blood center if you choose a time of year that they traditionally find themselves with blood in short supply, usually right after Christmas and mid-summer.

We try to get a local celebrity like a newscaster to sit on the giveaway bike for the posters and flyers. Ideally, your radio stations will conduct remote broadcasts from your location during the drive and you may be able to get the TV sponsor to cover the bike drawing, sending out one of their anchors or reporters to draw the winning name on live TV. We are lucky here in El Paso, our mayor rides a Road King and he has stopped in and drawn the winner’s name live on TV for all our drives. He even calls them on his cell live with a microphone next to the speaker so the audience can hear the winner screaming. It has proven to be great fun.

This is the rough draft of the process we used. Our first blood drive took in 360 units of blood, a record for the city at that time for a three day drive. The blood center was very happy and the next time out, they promoted more and brought out more people and equipment. Our drive two weeks ago took in 1,019 units of blood and has become something of a party. We set up TV’s showing motorcycle movies for the people waiting, they eat pizza and ice cream afterwards. We clear some bikes out of the showroom for chairs. Next time we’re bringing in picnic tables so people can hang out longer afterwards. One year we had an Elvis impersonator entertain the donors while they were waiting for open chairs. There are lots of ways to make this fun.

The drives become easier as they get more successful, the blood centers will devote more of their time and work harder with the media once they understand that bikers will indeed show up and donate on a large scale. Let’s face it, our sport probably uses more blood than soccer players or golfers. I don’t think Tiger Woods required a transfusion, just some bandages for his recent injuries. Overall, I feel this is something bikers can do for their community. Our media has been great, covering each event and crediting the whole community of bikers, not just the store who hosts the event. It is a win-win situation and with some effort can be turned into a fun annual event.

If anyone out there has questions, feel free to call or email me. I can get our blood center representatives to put you in touch with the correct people in your locale. The word has gotten around that Harley rider drives have been very successful. I think you will get a lot of cooperation from your local blood drive center. You can visit www.unitedbloodservices.org for more info.