Here’s your chance to make a difference.
University of Maryland Medical Center is having a Shock Trauma blood drive Wednesday.
Our blood drive is underway in UMMC's Gudelsky lobby! Today's drive lasts until 1:30 pm. All donors receive a $5 coupon for UMMC eateries!
— U. of MD Med. Center (@UMMC) August 17, 2016
This event is to honor 16-year-old Lamont Roberson who suffered a traumatic injury this past weekend when he was caught in the crossfire while playing basketball in Lexington Terrace.
He was playing with a friend and his older brother, who's 18-years-old, was nearby.
The youth works volunteer needed more than 25 units of blood when he arrived at shock trauma. Thanks to blood donors, Lamont was able to get the help he needed.
His mother, April Graves, said when she found out she froze. "As a mother, I would see it on TV, and I would feel and I would feel sorry for those mothers, who did go through those things and I just, now I know up close and personal what that feeling is and it's just indescribable," Graves said.
According to everyone who knows him, Lamont is a good kid, active in the community. That showed when his former teachers and mentor came in to donate blood Wednesday.
"There was an email sent out and it hit all of us really hard and all of us know lamont, he was a great kid and still lives not too far away so he stops by a lot at our middle school. He's a wonderful kid," Brad Nornhold, Math teacher in 7th and 8th Grade.
Lamont will hopefully be able to go back to school this year, he'll be a sophomore at Green Street Academy. With the university, Lamont worked for 6 weeks on neighborhood projects to help his community.
Now, UMMC needs your help to make sure other victims have the same chances to survive.
The blood drive well be held from 8 a.m. until 1:30p.m.
Your next chance to donate blood is September 27, 28, or 29 from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.