ORLANDO, Fla. – A blood drive happening right now in Orlando honors the 49 victims of the Pulse nightclub shooting and also remembers how the Orlando community came together seven years ago.
OneBlood has parked a Big Red Bus outside Dr. Phillips Center for the Performing Arts in downtown Orlando, where it will be until 8 p.m. That’s also where tonight’s remembrance ceremony will be.
Seven years ago a gunman went into the Pulse nightclub, killing 49 people and injuring dozens more.
In the days after the shooting, blood drives were a way for people to give back, with hundreds, if not thousands lining up around Central Florida to donate.
Seven years later, people are still donating blood. Celeste Roberson says despite being a little girl when the shooting happened, she wants to honor the lives lost.
“I remember actually coming out with my mom to help pass out flowers,” Roberson said. “And I am a part of the community, so I want to help out my community and every year I want to help remember them and remember what happened and know that we can still make a change and we can still help.”
Tammy Ogram also stopped by the blood drive and told News 6 this is one of the many ways she chooses to honor and remember the 49 lives lost.
“It’s just little things,” Ogram said. “It’s not anything big, but mostly today it’s just going to the blood drive because they still need it.”
Susan Forbes, the senior vice president of corporate communications and public relations for OneBlood, said many Pulse survivors are alive today because of blood donors.
“Those people went out to have fun that night and ended up at ORMC receiving multiple units of blood in the fight of their life,” Forbes said. “And, you know, without the blood, there would be very different outcomes.”
Blood donations have extra significance this year.
The Food and Drug Administration last month updated guidelines that did away with the requirement that men who have sex with men abstain from sex for three months prior to donating.
It was a rule that prevented many in the LGBTQ+ community from giving blood after Pulse.
“When you look back then and where we are now, seven years later, and how far we have come with that policy now changing and allowing more gay and bisexual men the opportunity to donate blood, we’ve come a long way,” Forbes said.
While the FDA has changed its donor restrictions, OneBlood is still working to put those changes into place. For more information about the recent change to the FDA’s donor guidelines, click here.
You can find other places to donate blood on the One Blood website.
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