Reality Health Games Series · Legacy Makers · Journey Through Genres

It's in the Blood.

🎧 Listening Lab

🕊️ Honoring Dr. Charles R. Drew · June 3, 1904 – April 1, 1950

One song. Nine genres. The father of blood banking, in verse — and a question for you: what will you give?

Special Welcome Notefrom Coach Lucy · your Reality Health Games host

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Welcome to It's in the Blood — our original song honoring Dr. Charles R. Drew, the surgeon, scientist and teacher the world calls the father of blood banking. It's part of our Reality Health Games series and our Legacy Makers tributes.

This Listening Lab is inspired by and dedicated to our passionate partners — the American Red Cross Southern Arizona, the Sickle Cell Foundation of Arizona, and the Arizona Achievers Foundation — who brought Dr. Drew's story to Tucson. It's a story that needs to be known, and we are honored to include this legacy trailblazer in our challenge series.

Here's your challenge: play it in the genre you love, then in one you'd never choose. Open the lyrics and sing along. Score your journey, earn coins — then answer the song's last line for yourself: what will you learn, what will you give, and whose life might change because of what you do?

— Coach Lucy

▶ Play the Song 🎯 Play the Iconic Excellence Bingo 🎮 Score Your Journey

Free to play · No download · Works on any device

One song · Nine genres

Journey Through the Genres

It's in the Blood, reborn across nine genres — Gospel to Mariachi, Motown to AfroBeats. Tap any version to play, or press Play All · Shuffle to let it run as a backdrop for a blood drive, a classroom, or a community screening.

Plays every genre version of It's in the Blood in random order and loops continuously — press once and let it run as a backdrop for a blood drive, a screening, or a classroom.

Tap the ☆ on any version to save it here. Favorites stay on this device and sync to your Listening Lab when you sign in.

🎚️ Browse by genre ▾

Play the Reality Health Games with us

Game Mode — score your journey

Want to play along? Open 🎮 Game Mode on any genre to capture a quick reflection and personal-impact score. As you journey through all nine genres, your scored versions add up — and level you up toward the Listening Lab BASICS Badge — It's in the Blood. Earn 50 LEARN It Coins for each version you listen through and 25 SHARE It Coins for each reflection.

0 of 0 versions scored · 0% · Level 1

0 LEARN It

0 SHARE It

Level 10–25% scored

Level 226–50%

Level 351–75%

Level 476%+ · BASICS Badge

Your scoring saves on this device — no sign-in needed. Sign in to keep your progress with your Listening Lab across devices.

💬 A note from Coach Lucy

Want to go further? You can play the Reality Health Games with us — for FREE. Join free from here, then come right back to this section to keep playing, scoring, and earning LEARN It & SHARE It Coins — and carry Dr. Drew's legacy forward, one genre at a time.

Join free & play with us →

Earn as you engage

Every reflection pays you back in coins

The Listening Lab is gamified through the same Learn It / Live It / Share It economy that runs across the entire Force for Health® Academy — earned for real engagement, not just a click.

LEARN It

Earned when you listen a version through and learn the story of the man who made modern blood banking possible.

LIVE It

Earned when you add a version to your Personal Listening Lab and live the message — learn your blood type, give blood, bring a friend to a drive.

SHARE It

The biggest reward — share a reflection or send a version to a friend, a student, a donor, a neighbor — and pass the legacy forward.

The gamified challenge

Journey Through Genres

One message — it's in the giving — told as Gospel, Motown, Blues, Jazz, Americana, Hip Hop, Rap, Mariachi and AfroBeats. Listen, score, and learn your way through every genre — then carry it to your next blood drive.

🎧 Listen & score the same song reborn in every genre.
🎚️ Slow the tempo to learn the melody and sing along.
⭐ Favorite the version you love — it saves to your Listening Lab.

Start the Journey →

🙌 Gospel🕺 Motown 🎺 Blues🎹 Jazz 🪕 Americana🎤 Hip Hop 🎙️ Rap🌵 Mariachi 🥁 AfroBeats

Illustrated portrait of Dr. Charles R. Drew

Legacy Makers · Advance the Dream®

About Dr. Charles R. Drew 1904 – 1950

Born in Washington, D.C., on June 3, 1904, Charles Richard Drew was a standout athlete at Amherst College before earning his medical degree at McGill University. His Columbia University thesis, Banked Blood: A Study in Blood Preservation, made him the first African American to earn a Doctor of Medical Science degree there. In 1940 he led the Blood for Britain plasma program, and in 1941 he became the first medical director of the American Red Cross Blood Program, where refrigerated collection trucks became the bloodmobile. He publicly opposed separating donated blood by race — there was no scientific basis for it. At Howard University he trained a generation of Black surgeons, and in 1944 the NAACP awarded him the Spingarn Medal.

📖 Why this song — and why now?▾

Dr. Drew's family home was filled with music — so it's fitting that his story is one you can sing. We wrote his life in verse and let nine genres carry it, so a grandmother who loves Gospel, a teen who lives for Rap, and a family that dances to Mariachi each find their own doorway into the same truth: someone we may never know can live because we lend a hand.

His legacy is personal for our sickle cell community. Many people living with sickle cell depend on regular transfusions, and Black donors are nearly three times more likely to provide the blood they most often need. A diverse donor community is how we honor the man who proved blood has no color line.

Dedicated to our partners — American Red Cross Southern Arizona, the Sickle Cell Foundation of Arizona, and the Arizona Achievers Foundation — and to every donor, teacher and neighbor carrying Dr. Drew's work forward. 🩸

Part of the Reality Health Games series

Legacy Makers · Listening Labs

This lab is tagged to the Advance the Dream® channel and the My Cardio Girl playlist in My Girl Power®, and shared with TEAM Up Greater Tucson and My Healthy Arizona — part of the Network's Legacy Makers Listening Labs, where every channel honors the people who advanced the dream.

🎯 Iconic Excellence Bingo 🕊️ Advance the Dream® ❤️ My Cardio Girl Playlist 🦋 My Girl Power® 🤝 TEAM Up Greater Tucson 🌵 My Healthy Arizona 🌟 Legacy Makers 🎶 All Songs · Master Jukebox

Inspired by & dedicated to our partners:

American Red Cross Southern ArizonaSickle Cell Foundation of ArizonaArizona Achievers Foundation

Learn It · Live It · Share It

This song is one square of the Iconic Excellence Bingo

Listening is LEARN It. Now play the whole card — watch the documentary, flip the 10 Facts, play three Reality Health Games, take the Pre- and Post-Knowledge Checks — and earn 300 LEARN It Coins and the Iconic Excellence Badge.

🎯 The Bingo board · all nine squares 🎬 Watch Iconic Excellence · +100 🎵 Lyric Link Challenge · +25 🏅 Post-Knowledge Check · +50 💬 Impact & Legacy Wall

🩸 The work isn't history if somebody still needs blood

Dr. Drew didn't just make discoveries — he built systems and trained the people who would carry them forward. Listen through, then take the Drew Pledge and add your voice to the Impact & Legacy Wall.

Take the Drew Pledge →

Another way to learn · 20 scenes

The Storybook — his life, verse by verse

Every scene from the song, in order, with the lyric it illustrates. Press play and read along — or tap any scene to open it full-screen for a classroom, a waiting room or a screen at your event.

His legacy is in the blood.

What will you learn? What will you give? And whose life might change because of what you do?

▶ Back to the Music 🎯 Play the Iconic Excellence Bingo

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Added to your Listening Lab

From the It's in the Blood Listening Lab

Tap any genre to begin

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🎚️ Tempo / BPM 1.0× · normal Slow it down to learn the melody and sing along — pitch stays the same.