La Quinta family hosts 6th annual blood drive in honor of Yaji Reyes, a young girl who lost her battle against Leukemia

A local family hosted an annual blood drive in La Quinta Saturday morning at La Quinta Park. It took place from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. in partnership with LifeStream Blood Bank.

The yearly blood drive was created to honor the life of Yaji Reyes, a young girl who passed away three years after battling Leukemia. Her family created the event six years ago to bring awareness to the disease, and to help Coachella Valley families also fighting the cancer.

The blood drive is hosted every year near Yaji's birthday, which is May 23rd. The Reyes family says they hope this blood drive encourages first time donors to give blood, especially when the national supply runs low. News Channel 3 spoke to Esmeralda Reyes, one of Yaji's older sisters, helps to organize this event every year in honor of Yaji.

"My sister got diagnosed when she was eight," said Reyes. "When was battling Leukemia back in the day, we saw her go through a lot of blood donations. She kept having to receive blood and platelets, and she was battling cancer for about three years. So I think in that time frame, seeing how much she took in, it made me realize we kind of have to take care of our community and go out and donate for others."

Reyes, says this year also had the best turnout so far.

"I think this might be my biggest one," said Reyes. "Last year we had 105 people that we helped. So
I think it was about 35 units of blood. And this year, I think the turnout is a lot bigger, which is very exciting."

The Blood Drive is an annual event, and will be hosted around the same time next year.