But yesterday, some of the staff at Cook Brothers Construction looked uncharacteristically sheepish as they queued to give blood at the New Zealand Blood Service Centre in Dunedin.
"There’s the odd one that’s a bit nervous about needles, but they did it for a good cause," Cook Brothers site manager Steve Jory said.
The company was working on its sustainability practices in a bid to be a good partner in the community, and to this end, wanted to give back to the community by donating blood.
"Some companies do beach clean-ups and things like that, and I just thought this would be something a wee bit different.
"There’s quite a high demand for blood. It’s not just people that have car crashes — it’s for cancer patients and people who have certain surgical procedures as well.
"It’s a pretty easy way to give back to the community."
He said about a dozen staff members were taking part in the initiative.
"That’s from builders through to our office staff and the regional managers — right across the board.
"The idea is to try to roll it out across the country, because Cook Brothers have got branches in Queenstown, Christchurch and Auckland.
"Hopefully we can build on this and everyone in those branches can also get involved."
It was an initiative they hoped to continue and they would be keeping track of the amount of blood they gave, he said.
"In a year’s time we could have made 20 donations and in another year’s time we might be up to 60 donations.
"I think it could be an ongoing thing."
Staff at the Blood Service in Crawford St said they would have been pleased to have received just four donations, but to have more donations on a regular basis in the future would be extraordinary. john.lewis@odt.co.nz
