Students encourage Latino blood donors

LYNN – It’s seems like a familiar message: give blood and you give the gift of life.But local activists say the message isn’t necessarily heard by all demographic groups, so they have recruited first-time donors and students for a march Wednesday to not only give the gift of life, but the gift of solidarity.”This is going to be my first time, but I feel really strong about it because I’m Hispanic,” Wilmer Morales, 18, and a junior at Classical High School said. “This way we can spread and build a culture in Hispanic people and in other cultures that don’t have a culture of donating blood.”The march and blood drive is organized by students and workers with the Global Embassy of Activists for Peace, an international nonprofit promoting peace and fellowship through various educational and other projects. One of the projects is a blood drive called “Life is in the Blood: Donating the Gift of Life” which will be held in more than 19 countries and more than 500 donor centers in April and May.A local effort will be held at KIPP Academy on Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.But the goal is not just to collect blood.Juan Gonzalez, a city resident and New England coordinator for the embassy said the blood drive is also an opportunity to connect people and develop a common culture of regular blood donations.”We find that it’s the way to connect people from different countries, different societal levels,” Gonzalez said. “We are trying to create a tradition in Lynn, because students are losing that part. If you see 95 percent of donors who are new, that’s a good thing; that’s really precious actually.”Another cultural challenge that the drive hopes to address is a lack of regular Latino donors.”In Latin America it’s not a practice; people don’t donate blood,” Dulce Gonzalez, Juan Gonzalez’s daughter, and a soon-to-be-first-time donor said. “Around here, there are all different blood drives.”Dulce Gonzalez, 18, a senior at KIPP Academy and global activist, explained that blood drives are either non-existent or exceedingly rare in Latin America and patients have to pay for blood they receive. As a Latina, she “was never taught to donate,” because there was no opportunity. Nor had most of her friends Latina at KIPP been taught to donate, she said. Nor had her friend Morales at Lynn Classical. So both students reached out to their respective friends to encourage them to donate.They apparently did too good a job.The blood drive can only accept a certain number of donors due to limited staff from partnering organization Boston Children’s Hospital, Juan Gonzalez explained. In fact, the embassy’s blood drive in 2013 had to turn away half its donors.So the embassy has organized a walk from City Hall to KIPP at 8:15 a.m. Wednesday to bring further attention to the issue of blood donation. Including volunteers from both schools, members of the police force and former gang members now working with Straight Ahead Ministries, the public is encouraged to attend, Gonzalez said.”The march is basically, we want to show that the students they can make a difference to this campaign,” Juan Gonzalez said. “We just want to raise awareness of the importance of the blood donations.”