To celebrate Canada's 150, Windsor's Muslim community wants to donate 150 pints of blood.
"It's an ambitious goal, I have to admit," says Dr. Maher El-Masri, chair of the Windsor Islamic Council. "I think it's realistic especially that we've given ourselves a good five weeks to make the push for it."
El-Masri says the Muslim community held a similar drive last winter where he says at least 50 units were donated to the Canadian Blood Services.
While the Windsor Islamic Council and Canadian Blood Services have organized the campaign, El-Masri says it is also open to the general public.
"That would be amazing," he says. "So we can come together regardless of our faith or ethnicity for a good cause."
Even if you do not want to donate blood, there is still a way to get involved. El-Masri says they could use drivers to take people to the Canadian Blood Services facility on Grand Marais Blvd. and back to the mosque again.
"Unfortunately, with a change in the approach to those blood drives, it's become a little bit of a struggle because we used to have them on-site," he says. "Now we don't have this leverage. We have to get people to go to the facility, and that becomes a little bit of an obstacle for some people."
The campaign runs from August 15 to 17, and anyone who wants to get involved can contact the Windsor Islamic Council at wic@windsorislamiccouncil.org.