The lawyers and staff of McGuireWoods LLP’s Atlanta office did more than roll up their sleeves for five firm-sponsored American Red Cross blood drives in the past year. They persuaded other tenants in their office building to do the same in an effort that earned the firm a prestigious award from the American Red Cross’ Southern Blood Services.
Pictured from left to right: Alicia Doherty, Director, LifeBoard; Jerry Tillery, CEO, Southern, Alabama & Central Gulf Coast and Puerto Rico Blood Services Regions at American Red Cross/President, GAHE; Hil Jordan, McGuireWoods Atlanta Managing Partner; Greg Ford, LifeBoard Chairman-CEO of Family of Companies
Atlanta legal secretary Carol Black with the Red Cross’s Atlanta Corporate Bloodhound Award, won this year by McGuireWoods for organizing blood drives with the highest ratio of participation in the Atlanta metro region. She led the team that was instrumental in enlisting participants from McGuireWoods and other firms housed in the Promenade Building, the midtown Atlanta high-rise where McGuireWoods has its office. The two smaller trophies are for achieving the site goal and for achieving the firm’s annual goal for its blood drives.
McGuireWoods received the Atlanta Corporate Bloodhound Award on July 31 for achieving the highest participation rate among members of the Atlanta LifeBoard in blood drives held between July 1, 2013 and June 30, 2014. The LifeBoard is an organization of 20 companies and law firms that commit to sponsoring five to six Red Cross blood drives each year at their places of business in metro Atlanta. LifeBoard members’ blood drives account for almost 15 percent of all blood collected by the Red Cross each year in the Atlanta metropolitan area.
This is the second time in the last three years that McGuireWoods has won the Atlanta Corporate Bloodhound Award. The firm earned this year’s honor by achieving a participation rate of 214 percent, dwarfing the LifeBoard’s 40 percent target. The rate is calculated by dividing the total number of pints collected at a LifeBoard member’s sponsored blood drives by the number of employees in the member’s Atlanta operations.
McGuireWoods’ blood drive committee achieved the firm’s participation rate by recruiting donors from other tenants in the Promenade building, the firm’s high-rise home in midtown Atlanta. Legal secretary Carol Black led the team and was instrumental in enlisting other companies in the building to participate. She also has organized “lunch-and-learn” events in the Promenade to help raise awareness of the need for blood donors. The cause is a passion for her, she said.
“I’m elated,” Black said of the award. “My goal is to help save as many lives as we can.”
The firm’s blood drive team also had support from office managing partner Hilary P. Jordan, Atlanta office administrator Elena Lee, and her predecessor, John Sansom, now Richmond’s office administrator.
“The McGuireWoods team turned their program into a truly vertical community blood drive,” Jordan said. “We look forward to continuing our support for the American Red Cross.”
The Atlanta office held the first of its 2014-2015 blood drives on July 16. The next is Oct. 7.
For more information about the American Red Cross’ LifeBoard, visit www.redcrossblood.org/info/southern/lifeboard.