Vice President JD Vance is visiting Minneapolis Wednesday, one week after last week's deadly mass shooting at Annunciation Catholic Church.
The backdrop to Vance's visit is Memorial Blood Centers who are hosting a blood drive just west of Annunciation, with parishioners coming together as a community and stepping up by giving blood to help local patients in need.
Justin Nuahn is with Memorial Blood Centers and his family have been parishioners at the church for nearly 20 years.
"The support from the local politicians all the way up to the national politicians is much appreciated, and we hope that the families can you feel that and get whatever they can to take out of that," says Nuahn.
He says blood donations have been up 400% over the last week, as people try to give back after the tragic shooting that killed two kids and injured over 20 others.
"For the blood collection, we use a lot of blood," says Nuahn. "We just came out of a blood emergency and we always need blood. So when these things happen, to have a strong, safe inventory of blood is amazing for the community."
Nuahn says that this is a way to feel "normal" for people.
"To have people back on site to be able to walk through the memorial and now to get back to what annunciation does," Nuahn explains. "They do blood drives every two to three months, so they know this and this feels comfortable to us. And we'll continue to have those little milestones where we get back to."