Donors line up outside OneBlood Blood Donation Center in Orlando, Fla., on Sunday, June 12, 2016. The center was flooded with donors after a mass shooting early Sunday morning at a gay nightclub, Pulse, in Orlando. A gunman wielding an assault-type rifle and a handgun opened fire inside the nightclub early Sunday, killing at least 50 people before dying in a gunfight with SWAT officers, police said. It was the worst mass shooting in American history. (Loren Elliott/Tampa Bay Times via AP)
ORLANDO — UF alumni joined fellow Orlando residents to support thousands of blood donors Sunday afternoon.
The OneBlood drive at West Michigan Street, located less than three miles from Orlando Regional Medical Center, eventually reached capacity.
Patients are in dire need of blood after a gunman pledged allegiance to ISIS and opened fire in the gay nightclub Pulse, resulting in the largest mass shooting in U.S. history, according to the Associate Press.
Aunali Khaku, a physician who completed his residency at UF Health Shands Hospital, awoke to text messages about the attack and the ensuing need for blood.
“When we woke up this morning to tragic news we wondered, ‘What can we do?’” he said.
Khaku joined his family and three Muslim organizations to visit OneBlood, where they found a line that was already full.
Instead of donating, they decided to bring water and ice to the people in line, Khaku said.
“We were terrified of what happened and we were worried,” he said. “I hugged my son tighter because this was happening so close to home, and it was unfortunately done by a Muslim.”
Islam does not support terrorism, he said, and America’s islamophobic climate may result in backlash.
“We live here,” he said. “We raise our families here and, just like any other American, when something like this happens our hearts go out to those affected by it.”
The center received an overwhelming amount of donations, including water, food and snacks, said Eric Gray, the executive director of United Against Poverty and a UF alumnus.
The nonprofit organization is located across the street from OneBlood, which is the closest donation center to Pulse, he said.
Gray said the organization experienced several first-time volunteers, who received T-shirts and then organized donations.
“People came to us asking how they could help, so we started putting them to work,” he said.
The center does not have a procedure to handle the influx of donated food and water, Gray said. His organization, however, has the space to store donations and redistribute them to any of the eight local blood centers.
“Today is very odd and out of the ordinary,” Gray said. “We just happened to be across the street.”
Gray said he became familiar with the nonprofit industry as a UF student in the ’90s, especially when he took part in the first Dance Marathon in 1995. Gray said he then became the fundraiser’s main chairman in 1997.
“I found that I was working 80 hours a week with Dance Marathon and not breaking a sweat,” he said. “When you find something you love doing, you just stick with it.”
Susan Forbes, the vice president of marketing and communications for OneBlood, said most local blood centers remained at or over capacity throughout the day.
“They (donors) have been unbelievably patient,” she said.
The center, Forbes said, planned to stay open until all donors finished giving blood, and it encouraged others to make appointments in the upcoming days and weeks.
UF alumnus Brandon Corsentino collaborated with other UF alumni on Facebook to raise more than $700, which he used to buy Domino’s Pizza and other snacks for the donors.
“It’s eye opening to what a community can do,” he said. “It would be great if we could somehow learn that it doesn’t take an event like this to prove that the good in the world is out there.”
The volunteers, Corsentino said, ranged from business professionals to high school students and young children, all of who spent their Sunday helping others.
“Despite the occurrences, everybody was there for the right reasons,” he said. “It was great to see a community come together.”
