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It’s a way for those of Mainali’s admirers to help the world’s humanity and save others’ lives.

Mainali, a life-long blood donor, donated blood 205 times, saving up to 615 lives during his 35 years of advocacy. He traveled to 16 states, 20 countries, and six continents and organized more than 300 blood drive programs, to which he donated more than 100 times.

He also founded multiple nonprofit organizations to encourage blood donations, including Blood Donors Association Nepal, Blood Donors of America, International Nepalese Blood Donors, and World Blood Donor Arjun Mainali Incorporation.

Mainali rolled up his sleeve 22 times to donate his blood and platelets, spending 124 hours at various blood centers over eight months during the COVID-19 pandemic — a time when many were scared to step outside of the house.

His first blood donation in the pandemic was in Farmington, CT, in April 2020.
When he came back his wife, Tara, made him quarantine for 10 days.

In December 2020, he excitedly recounted for a Patch editor how the blood can go to a recipient within a couple of hours the process is so quick.=

At the time he had just spent half a day at the insurance company where he worked and then made the drive to New York Blood Center in Melville.

“This is a very happy thing for me,” he said.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020, Mainali felt the need more than ever to give his blood. He began donating blood at 19 years old, leaving part of himself all over the world from Ireland to Haiti, and then on to Rwanda.

His trips were all on his dime.

He said his daughter and son have his blood running through their veins, but he also considers the recipients of his blood and platelets his family as well.

It made him proud.

“I have a family around the world,” said Mainali, who immigrated to the U.S. in 2000.

One time he traveled to the United Kingdom for a blood donation and then flew back within a day.

His legacy of giving will continue.

The Nassau Central Nepalese Lions Club, in collaboration with RK Foundation, Par Foundation, and BT Foundation, is encouraging the community to come out to donate blood in Mainali’s memory on Sunday at Broadway Mall in Hicksville.

It will run from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

Donors can give every 56 days, and up to six times per year, and it takes only one hour.

The Food and Drug Administration recently lifted several blood donor eligibility restrictions.

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Roughly one in seven hospital admissions require a blood transfusion with those in need including cancer patients, accident, burn, or trauma victims, newborn babies and their mothers, transplant recipients, surgery patients, chronically transfused patients suffering from sickle cell disease or thalassemia, and many others.

This is what motivated Mainali.

Whether he was donating blood or raising awareness, his goal was clear.

He wanted to save lives by giving the most vital part of himself and it didn’t require proof of where it went.

“I am sure that many people have survived,” he said.

Dhakal first met Mainali in 2008 when he came to the U.S. from Nepal.

Mainali put him and his wife up in his apartment for six months while they found their footing in Hicksville.

Over the years, Dhakal became inspired by Mainali’s mission to help others.

“All his life, he committed to save people’s lives,” he said.

On Sunday, he hopes others will do the same.

To make an appointment to donate blood on Sunday, donors can call 1-800-933-2566 or visit this nybc.org.

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