What began as a service project in college has grown into something much bigger and much more personal for Beau Gibbs.

Beau was the president of Mortar Board, the honor society at Montana State University, during the 2012-2013 school year when he helped organize a pair of Red Cross blood drives. He recruited and scheduled donors, provided food and made sure the drives ran smoothly. Those experiences stuck with him.

 “I realized it was a really easy way to have a lifesaving impact,” he said.

Not long after, Beau graduated college and landed a job in his hometown of Glendive as a measurement engineer with WBI Energy, a company with more than 100 employees. That’s when he got an idea.

“It occurred to me one day – well shoot, it would be pretty easy to organize another drive in Glendive,” he said.

Beau worked with the WBI leadership team to organize their first workplace drive in 2014, bringing 27 donors through the door. He continued to organize WBI drives before eventually expanding to communitywide events at locations throughout Glendive. He partnered with the local brewery, Cross County Brewing, to organize pint-for-a-pint drives where those who donated blood received a coupon for a free pint of beer. And his mom got in on the act, too.

“My mom is quite a baker, so she started making these big monster cookies and that was something that brought people back,” he said.

Glendive hosted its fourth drive of the year in December, up from three drives in previous years. Drives that once had a goal of 20 donors now aim for more than 40. Considering a single donation can save more than one life, Beau is hoping to collect enough blood to save a life for each day of the year. They’re well on their way, he said, and credits much of that to his employer and the generosity of his community.

“If it wasn’t for WBI taking a chance this might not have ever happened,” he said. “The giving spirit of WBI and the Glendive community have been great.”

The impact of lifesaving blood became even more real for Beau in 2018 when his grandfather was hospitalized with a bleeding ulcer, requiring 23 units of blood and another seven units of platelets and plasma.

“That continues to inspire me to really ramp up what we can do in Glendive,” he said.  “If it wasn’t for those 30 donations, he would have passed away much sooner. It gave us a lot more time to spend with my grandpa, and we’re eternally grateful for that.”

Besides bringing blood donors through the door, Beau also came to the rescue when the Red Cross team was in a bind. They were scheduled to travel from Glendive to Circle for a blood drive, but a heavy snowstorm knocked out power to the whole town, disabling gas pumps. The team had some fuel in the tank but didn’t want to chance it on a treacherous day in a remote area.

Luckily, WBI had a mechanical gas pump and a storage tank. Beau made a few phone calls and within 15 minutes the Red Cross team was gassed up and on the road, making it to the Circle drive in time to collect 37 units.

“That little bit of gas helped save as many as 100 lives that day,” Beau said. “I felt pretty good about that one.”

In October, the Dawson County Healthy Communities Coalition recognized Beau’s giving spirit with its Community Champion Award. Beau, who often serves as the greeter at the Glendive drives and also donates blood himself, said the time he puts in is well worth it, especially considering the number of families like his own who are helped by blood donations.

“Whenever it crosses my mind, it brightens my day,” he said. “It’s such an easy way to save someone’s life.”

DONATE LIFESAVING BLOOD

Sign up today to donate lifesaving blood by visiting RedCrossBlood.org and entering your zip code or calling 800-RED-CROSS. A donation takes less than an hour.

CONSIDER ORGANIZING A BLOOD DRIVE

Are you interested in organizing a blood drive in your community? Learn more at RedCrossBlood.org/HostADrive.