Last Monday, the Charlie Clark Nissan auto dealership in Brownsville won, “Clash of the Titans”, a Valley-wide event hosted by Vitalant, formerly known as United Blood Services. Car dealerships across the Rio Grande Valley were competing to see which one could collect the most blood donations. The Brownsville auto dealership was tied with their sister store in Harlingen and won a run-off between the two locations.
Senior Donor Recruitment Representative for Cameron County, Sonia Guajardo-Partida says the event’s purpose is to promote awareness.
[But] at the end of the day, we really are trying to just bring awareness to the community about making sure that we always have blood available in our shelves and being part of something bigger and saving lives here in the community…
Guajardo-Partida says all of the blood collected from these events will be used to help patients in local hospitals in the Rio Grande Valley.
Every blood donor at the event was provided with a custom Clash of the Titans T-shirt by Nissan, a movie ticket and snacks from Vitalant.A Donor since two thousand seven, Edgar Omar Yerena says donating blood is not about the money, but about helping people.
[And] I know one of the things about U.B.S. is that they won’t pay you, but it is not about the paying you, you know is about people helping other people…
Vitalant accepted whole blood and red blood cells donations. Guajardo Partida says that one donation can save up to twelve premature babies or three adult lives.
Sales Manager at Charlie Clark Nissan in Brownsville, Jerry Campos says their dealership participates in these events more often.
[We] started doing it more often here at Charlie Clark, and we are trying to get the most people to come and do some donations on the blood…
Campos says Charlie Clark Nissan has been trying to become more involved in helping the community recently and is spreading awareness about the importance people donating blood. For more information on future blood drives, visit Vitalant.org
Reporter Victor Rivero
