HASTINGS, Neb. – An annual blood drive making its way around the state is continuing to receive donations from the public, while also holding a friendly competition between first responders.

The Battle of the Badges blood drive made its final stop in the Tri-Cities Thursday afternoon in Hastings, after drives in Kearney and Grand island earlier this week.

The annual event gives donors the opportunity to 'donate' their unit of blood towards the Hastings Police Department, or Hastings Fire and Rescue.

The Battle of the Badges blood drive in the Tri-Cities is put on by the Grand Island Red Cross organization.

While the drive is mainly about valuable blood donations, members of the Hastings Fire and Police departments say they look forward to poking fun at one another during the friendly rivalry.

"The relationship we have with the police department is great. The fact that we can have that inner friendly rivalry, it just makes all the difference in the world," said Hastings Fire and Rescue Fire Inspector Travis Nolan. "We can banter and eventually it turns it out for the community, so then the community can enjoy it too, and everyone gets involved."

"It's a lot of fun for me, I enjoy a lot of banter back and forth with our rivals at the fire department," said Hastings Police Dept. Sgt. Kyle Williamson. "By the end of the day, we just hope to accomplish that we get some new blood donors out here, and we get enough donations to help the Red Cross, and that we beat the other cities that involved in the Battle of the Badges between Kearney, Grand Island, and Hastings."

After the Hastings blood drive ends at 6:00 p.m. Thursday, Red Cross officials will tally up final results from the entire Tri-Cities Battle of the Badges numbers. 

Officials told NCN over 100 people were signed up to donate during the six-hour span in Hastings on Thursday.