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MINNEAPOLIMEDIA NEWS | Sheriff Brad Wise and Anoka County Staff Roll Up Their Sleeves During Community Blood Drive
The Anoka County Sheriff’s Office joined Memorial Blood Centers’ Battle of the Badges campaign, welcoming employees and community donors to its Andover headquarters Thursday.
ANDOVER, MN (August 14, 2026) Anoka County Sheriff Brad Wise and members of the Sheriff’s Office staff were among those who rolled up their sleeves Thursday as the agency hosted a Memorial Blood Centers Bloodmobile outside its headquarters in Andover.
The August 13 blood drive ran from noon until 5 p.m. at the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office, 13301 Hanson Boulevard NW. Appointments were encouraged, but the Sheriff’s Office also welcomed walk-in donors throughout the afternoon.
Photographs released by the agency show Wise giving blood inside the mobile donation unit and offering a thumbs-up during the process. Two Sheriff’s Office staff members were also photographed donating.
The Sheriff’s Office has not released a final count of donors or units collected. The agency’s participation, however, placed local public-safety employees alongside residents in a regional effort to maintain the blood supply during a season when donations often decline.
Part of Battle of the Badges
Thursday’s drive was part of Memorial Blood Centers’ annual Battle of the Badges, a friendly summer competition involving law-enforcement agencies, fire departments, emergency responders and their communities.
Participating agencies host local blood drives from June through August and encourage employees, families, friends and residents to donate. Each donation counts toward a participating team while supporting hospitals and patients across the region.
Memorial Blood Centers says the summer campaign is especially important because vacations, school breaks and changing schedules often result in fewer donations. The need for blood continues throughout the year for trauma care, surgeries, cancer treatment and other medical procedures.
“Every donation helps your team climb the leaderboard and impacts local patients in need,” the organization explains on its Battle of the Badges campaign page.
The campaign includes participating public-safety agencies and municipalities throughout the Twin Cities metropolitan area and surrounding communities.
One donation can help several patients
Memorial Blood Centers says one pint of donated blood can help save as many as three lives, depending on how the donated blood is separated and used.
After collection, donated blood can be processed into components such as red blood cells, platelets and plasma. Those components may then be provided to different patients based on their medical needs.
Blood products are regularly used in emergency rooms, operating rooms, cancer-treatment centers and neonatal care. Because some blood components have limited storage periods, hospitals depend on a continuing supply of new donations.
The organization encourages healthy and eligible donors to give throughout the year, not only during emergency appeals or seasonal campaigns.
Residents who were unable to participate in Thursday’s Anoka County drive can use the Memorial Blood Centers website to locate another community blood drive or one of the organization’s donor centers. Scheduling assistance is also available by calling 888-GIVE-BLD, or 888-448-3253.
Sheriff’s Office led by county’s 18th sheriff
Wise is the 18th sheriff to lead Anoka County since the office was established in 1857.
Before becoming sheriff, he spent 27 years with the Coon Rapids Police Department, serving as a patrol officer, detective, patrol sergeant and investigative captain before being appointed police chief in 2011. He retired from the Coon Rapids position in 2022 and was subsequently elected Anoka County sheriff.
Thursday’s photographs showed the county’s top elected law-enforcement official participating personally in the same donation effort promoted to employees and the public.
The drive continued the Sheriff’s Office’s recurring partnership with Memorial Blood Centers. The agency has hosted previous Bloodmobile events at its Andover headquarters using the same sponsor code, 3820.
Thursday event carried forward in Friday’s news report
The Sheriff’s Office issued a same-day community reminder Thursday announcing that the Bloodmobile would remain open until 5 p.m. and that walk-ins were welcome.
Because the event had concluded by the beginning of Friday’s news cycle, this updated report reflects the drive as a completed August 13 event rather than directing residents to visit the Bloodmobile on August 14.
The photographs accompanying this report show Sheriff Brad Wise and two members of the Anoka County Sheriff’s Office staff donating during Thursday’s drive. The two staff members were not publicly identified in the information provided with the photographs.
No final participation total had been announced as of publication.
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