AUBURN, Wash. — It's a campaign that combines music with a lifesaving message.
"So today, we're at Auburn High School, and we are going to be advocating for Bloodworks and the blood drive," said singer TahJae Shante. "We're going to be basically using music and rhythm and beats to try and tie that in with the youth and bring it all together."
Where the Heart Lives is a collaboration between Bloodworks Northwest and some of the staff and alumni from Seattle’s hip hop mentoring program, The Residency. The goal of these gatherings is to educate and encourage young people to make donating blood a permanent part of their lives.
"So within the course of the show, we do start out with some of our factoids, just to kind of let our students know what we're here for," said Shante.
But between the facts and stats, Residency alums like Tahjae Shante and Kingpin X get to sing and share their personal stories.
"Just bringing that music piece in, it kind of loosens up the crowd, it warms them up. And it also helps them be more susceptible to listening to the actual facts behind the blood drive versus them feeling like throughout a lecture or something like that," said Shante. "I'm just happy that I can connect with them, like you know, be able to connect through music like it's so powerful."
"One out of every four Americans will need a blood transfusion at some point, you feel me? Whether that's your parents, whether it's your homeboy, whether it's your brother and sister," said Kingpin X. "I know, for a fact, one of my family members needed a blood transfusion before and he was able to get it because of the people like Bloodworks, so it's like, it's never in vain."
It's younger donors who are critical in restoring and keeping our local blood supply at a healthy level.
"I've always been taught to think you have your purpose, then you have your passion. My passion is music. And my purpose is the community," said Kingpin X. "When you have something like Where the Heart Lives, it really puts a flower on a community because there are so many people that need to know so many things about this."
Bloodworks Northwest plans to tour even more high schools this year. If you would like to have a ‘Where the Heart Lives’ concert come to your local school, you can find more info on their website.
This story is sponsored by Bloodwork Northwest.
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