American Telugu Association (ATA) staged a community blood drive in Detroit on June 5th at Children’s Place Montessori. Telugu community members participated in the event with great interest to donate blood. The blood drive that was facilitated by the American Red Cross started at 9AM on Sunday and continued through the afternoon hours until 3PM with number of donors waiting in the line through out. Red Cross appreciated ATA for introducing quite a few new blood donor registrants during the drive.

Ram Reddy (ATA Executive Committee Member), Lingala Hariprasad Reddy (ATA Media Chair), Murali Bommanaveni (Detroit Regional Coordinator), Vinod Kukunoor and Nagender Aytha (local coordinators), Ramchandra Reddy (ATA International coordinator), and Sudhakar Reddy (Ex-Trustee) organized the event. They appreciated the donors for coming forward to donate blood with great enthusiasm. The blood that was collected during the drive was good enough to save over 100 lives. "Knowing they've helped, donors had a big smile on their faces. ... It's something to give of yourself and know that you're helping".

Local organizing committee with 24 people has been formed and 2 more events (Health Camp and ATA Awareness - Camping Day) are planned in the next 60 days.

The organizers thanked the donors who helped save lives, American Red Cross for facilitating the blood drive, Mrs. Karen Lumsden (Principal, Children’s Place Montessori) for allowing ATA use the facility for this great cause, and Anand (MiIndia.com) who helped publicize the event.