Blue Forever Inc., a registered nonprofit organization founded by Mississippi State University sophomore Kellie Abbott, recently donated around $1,300 worth of medical supplies to the MSU Police Department.
The organization raises funds to supply police departments around the nation with QuikClot belt-mounted trauma kits.
Blue Forever outfitted 18 MSUPD officers with first-aid kits containing specialized components, such as tourniquets, mouth guards for CPR and an enhanced form of medical gauze used to treat serious traumatic injuries police officers are exposed to while on duty, such as gunshot wounds. 
“If you get hit in the femoral artery, you are going to die within five to eight minutes without a tourniquet,” MSUPD Chief Vance Rice said. “It makes a huge difference whether or not that tourniquet is there.”
Abbott said Blue Forever started out as a highschool senior project in her hometown of Shreveport, Louisiana. Abbott’s mother and father both worked at the local police department. Abbott said she grew up around police officers.
“One night, October 24, 2010, I woke up to my mom crying in the middle of the night,” Abbott said. “I learned that one of our best friends in the police department had been shot and killed in the line of duty.”
The officer, Tim Prunty, had been making a routine visit to a local woman that was afraid to leave her home alone, but had the night shift at her job. While he escorted her, the two were attacked by another citizen, and Prunty was shot in the back of the leg.
A second officer was in the area and arrived on the scene in moment. He began to use whatever was available–hands, shirts–to try and slow the bleeding but unfortunately, Prunty died as a result of blood loss.   
“It was shocking to hear that because you hear about officers being shot all the time, but it doesn’t happen everyday and never close to home,” Abbott said. “It was really hurtful.”
Later, Abbott’s high school started a program that required all students to do a senior project where they had to demonstrate how to do something new they learned.
“It had been implemented the year before and people did stuff like how to decorate a cake or how to teach football,” Abbott said. “I kind of felt like I wanted to do something more than that.”
After her friend Prunty’s death, Abbott said she did research into how best to prevent officer deaths. She learned about a product by Z-Medica called the QuikClot Belt Trauma Kit the U.S. military has been issuing to soldiers. It was designed to stop life-threatening blood loss, the same thing that claimed the life of her family friend. 
With the help of her mentor Mike VanSant, Abbott raised $6,400 in Blue Forever’s first year to donate the QuikClot trauma kits to the Shreveport Police Department where Officer Prunty served. 
Since then, with help from her mother, VanSant, and Z-Medica Abbott has turned her high school senior project into a full -fledged 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that has raised in total around $60,000 dollars and outfitted officers in seven states as far out as Pennsylvania.     
“It was actually extremely hard, it took me months to get my papers but I finally have them and I can do a lot more now that I am a nonprofit,” Abbott said. 
Blue Forever raises most of its money primarily through selling T-shirts and organizing events. For more information about the organization or how to donate, visit its website BlueForever.org.