Prescott nursing student wins $20k in blood drive giveaway
By BRODIE GREENE The Daily CourierFeb 18, 2026
25-year-old Emanuel Mulberg is halfway through completing the nursing program at Yavapai College. He received a voicemail last January from somebody claiming he won $20,000, but he didn’t think much of it because he gets a lot of spam calls.
To his surprise, the emails and calls didn’t stop.
“I was really really hesitant because she was saying ‘You just won $20,000 and there was a big giveaway for December and I was like ‘I wasn’t aware of any giveaway that I entered,’” Mulberg said.
The caller turned out to be a representative of Vitalant, an organization that collects blood from donors. His skepticism ended when they were able to tell Mulberg his number, blood type and the last date he donated.
“It was definitely an incredible blessing because I live by myself. I have bills. I have rent. I have all that stuff and I don’t have any help from anywhere else,” Mulberg said.
Mulberg first donated blood through Vitalant when he was in high school. He hasn’t had many opportunities to donate in Prescott, but last December he stumbled upon a blood drive at the Prescott Gateway shopping center while Christmas shopping. He said he didn’t recall anything advertising the giveaway.
His studies keep him pretty busy, but on the weekends he works as a certified nursing assistant. His experience in medicine taught him the necessity of blood donations, he said.
“It’s very very needed and it’s and it’s a lot more than what you would think on a surface level,” Mulberg said. “I have the universal blood type, so it’s definitely opened my eyes quite a bit.”
According to Vitalant, they need 700 donations every day to meet the demands of the 72 hospitals they serve across the state.
Mulberg said he normally chooses to do a Power Red donation, which can be used to help multiple patients.
“They’ll take your blood and then they’ll separate out your blood cells and then they’ll give you back the plasma and the platelets,” Mulberg said. “They freeze it and then they’ll spread it out to as many people as they can.”
When he completes the program, Mulberg wants to work in the cardiovascular side of the Intensive Care Unit. Eventually, he wants to become a Nurse Practitioner.
“First things first, I went ahead and just took care of all of my debt, which was incredible because it was definitely affecting me and it’s definitely adding more stress on top of school and everything else,” Mulberg said.
The money was given to him in the form of gift cards. He put some of them aside for future groceries and bills, and was also able to help his mother.
“Then the rest of them I sent over to my mom in Phoenix because she lives by herself and she lives in a tiny little studio and I’m not there to support her,” Mulberg said.
Vitalant’s giveaway was open to U.S. donors who donated whole blood, Power Red or plasma between December 1 and 31, 2025, for a chance to win a $20,000 gift card. Vitalant provides blood products to 90% of hospitals in Arizona. More information is available on its website, vitalant.org.