Community Gives Blood In Memory Of Gabriel Hassan 

 Dozens Of Units Of Blood Were Donated To Honor The Wharton Grad Who Died From Leukemia 

Sophia, Mahmoud & Lily Carolyn Hassan, with Gabriel’s Boy Scout uniform at the OneBlood drive on May 10. 
(Photos by Charmaine George) 

 A little more than three months after he passed away from leukemia caused by a rare ailment he had from birth called Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome (or SDS), the family of Wharton High graduate Gabriel “Gabe” Hassan held a community blood drive on what would have been Gabe’s 18th birthday — May 10 — at the Islamic Society of New Tampa’s Masjid Daarusalam on Morris Bridge Rd., just north of Cross Creek Blvd. 


Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera (above) & Florida House Minority leader Fentrice Driskell (right) at the blood drive. (Photos from Luis Viera’s Facebook page) 

There were three OneBlood Bloodmobiles on hand (photo) at the blood drive, which began a few hours before the regular services at the New Tampa Mosque. 

Dozens of Muslim worshipers, plus members of Gabe’s Boy Scout Troop 148 and fellow Wharton students, as well as District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera and District 67 State Rep. (and House Minority Leader) Fentrice Driskell donated blood in Gabe’s honor and memory on his birthday. 

Gabe’s mom Lily Carolyn (below left photo) and dad, Mahmoud (right photo), were among the 65 people who donated blood on their son’s birthday. Lily Carolyn, who shared her private writings about Gabe and his favorite things with us (see below), said it was the first time she had ever donated blood. 

Lily Carolyn was appreciative of all of the support the blood drive received. “It’s been really difficult with the loss of Gabe,” she told me. “He was the little guy that knew how to light up the room.” 

She noted that the Wharton High PTSA also previously held its own OneBlood drive, where 40 units were donated. 

“My wish for his birthday was to equal or best it,” Lily Carolyn said. “God is great. We beat it by 25 units.” She also noted that the 65 units of blood collected could help save 195 adults or 390 babies. 

“I also ordered 18 mini red velvet bundt cakes from Nothing Bundt Cakes for those who came early to the blood drive to celebrate Gabe’s birthday. It was his favorite.” 

Speaking Of Favorites… 
The first page of the journal Lily Carolyn has been keeping in memory of her son and his favorite things. 

Since the day he passed, Lily Carolyn has been making entries in a journal to keep the memory of Gabe alive. “This journal has all your loves and dislikes,” she wrote. “You were supposed to bury me. You were becoming the young man your daddy and I were starting to see. You wanted to go to USF and go into the field of biomedical engineering and help daddy with billing on the side.” 

The next several pages are filled with Gabe’s loves and dislikes, including: 

Favorite Foods — Pad Thai noodles, sweet sticky rice, sushi and pokĂ© bowls (especially from Bonefish), Ford’s Garage mushroom burger w/onion rings, calzones from Anthony’s NY Pizza, Panera tomato soup, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Chick-fil-A spicy chicken sandwich, cinnamon bun w/ vanilla glaze, Mom’s pancet w/mushrooms, Star Wars edge of the galaxy green shakes from Luke’s aunt…and many more. 

Favorite Movie He Can Watch Over & Over Again — “Mario Bros. 2023” 

Something He Has Done With The Hassan Family That He Will Never Do Again — Scuba diving 

Other Favorites — Hanging with family & friends, eating at restaurants, hanging with his birds (Georgio, or “Gremlin,” Sim Sim & Flappy), going to Best Buy and going to movies with Popa Greg. He loved the Boy Scouts and hanging with his fellow Scouts, helping with service projects, food pantry/distribution… Gabe loved learning and was curious of the world. He loved life & his family. 

Least Liked Merit Badge He Completed — Fishing, “Which is funny, as he loves eating fish. He just didn’t like the process of gutting & cleaning it out.” 

Lily Carolyn also shared that SDS, which ultimately caused Gabe’s leukemia, afflicts only one person in 80,000. It also stunts normal growth as its victims age, “Even before he died, Gabe was only 4’-10” tall, shorter than his sister Sophia (Gabe called her ‘Soph Soph’), who is 5’-4” at only 12 years old.” 

She also noted that in the photo above she sent me, Gabe and Sophia volunteered at Ronald McDonald House, “Not knowing we were going to be on the other side…the recipients. We taught them young the important value of giving back to the community.” 

Thank you for this info, Lily Carolyn. 

Masjid Daarusalam Hosts Blood Drive For Gabe Hassan

The parents of Gabriel (Gabe) Hassan, the Wharton High graduate who passed away on Feb. 6 of this year from a rare form of leukemia, shortly after receiving his diploma, held a blood donation drive at the Islamic Society of New Tampa’s Masjid Daarusalam on May 10, in honor of what would have been their son’s 18th birthday.

There were three OneBlood Bloodmobiles on hand at the blood drive, which began a few hours before the regular services at the New Tampa Mosque, located just north of Cross Creek Blvd., at 15830 Morris Bridge Rd.

Hundreds of worshipers, as well as District 7 Tampa City Council member Luis Viera and State House Minority Leader Fentrice Driskell (D-Dist. 67), donated blood in Gabe’s honor and memory on his birthday. Gabe’s mom and dad, Carolyn & Mahmoud, were among those who donated blood in their son’s honor. Carolyn, who shared her private writings about Gabe and his favorite things with the Neighborhood News (look for them in our May 28 New Tampa issue), said it was the first time she had ever donated blood.

The Neighborhood News story in the May 28 New Tampa issue will provide additional pictures and information for this story.

Updating Three Of The Stories That Ran In Our Last Issue

Wharton High grad Gabriel Hassan lost his battle with Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome after receiving his diploma.

Because of the fact we only have an issue every four weeks in each of our markets, sometimes the stories that appear in our issues are or become “old” even before (or shortly after) that issue arrives in your mailbox.

In our Feb. 6 issue, we had two such stories that really needed to be updated in this issue and a third that was an event that took place after that issue hit mailboxes.

The most important, and saddest, of these was the fact that Gabriel Hassan who was on the cover of our last issue for receiving his diploma for graduating from Wharton High on Jan. 22, while he was still at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital — passed away less than two weeks after that event.

Gabe, who was suffering from terminal leukemia, succumbed to his cancer and was buried by his family on or the day before Valentine’s Day. We also learned that his specific form of leukemia is called Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome, or SDS.

When we posted the story that Gabe had passed, his father Mahmoud Hassan commented on our Facebook page:

“He was my beloved boy — a precious soul who loved people and life.

He loved service to others, EDM music, Roblox, Video Games, Going to the movies.

He was our proud Eagle Scout and graduated HS despite all of his challenges.

Gabriel was a sweet angel and he will be missed dearly. We are grieving for our angel in heaven. We miss him so much.”

Although I never met Gabriel or his family, we join the Hassan family in their grief. Rest in Peace.

To help those afflicted with SDS, please search“Shwachman-Diamond Syndrome Alliance” on Facebook.

Suzy Tkacik Falls Short Of Award

We also knew that our story about Pride Elementary media specialist Suzy Tkacik (photo) being a finalist

for the Hillsborough School District-wide Ida S. Baker Diversity Educator of the Year award would be old news by the time the Feb. 6 issue reached your mailbox.

Even so, we still felt it was important to highlight Ms.Tkacik in these pages, as she was the only finalist for any of the District’s “Excellence in Education” awards from a New Tampa school.

Well, at the District’s award gala on Feb. 1, this year’s Ida S. Baker award went to Dr. Ilfault Joseph, the community resource teacher at Jennings Middle School.

Congratulations again, Suzy. You’re still a winner in all of our eyes!

Wharton Tournament Nets $6,400!

The third story we needed to update was the second annual Wharton High Cornhole ithloma. Tournament, which was held on Feb. 10 and ended up raising more than $6,400 to provide teacher grants and classroom needs for the school.

Our congratulations go out to Wharton teacher Matt McKernan (left in photo, left) and his partner (and fellow former Wildcat) Tate Wheeler, who outlasted 28 other teams to take home the top prize, after finishing as the runners-up in last year’s inaugural Cornhole Tourney. The second-place finishers were Benito Middle School teacher Christopher Taylor and his uncle Shawn Quinn. Both winning teams left with prize packages worth more than $700!