It’s pure desire driving young local political celebrity Joe Gibson through his next great feat.

The 16-year-old Blooming Prairie high school junior has already helped pass legislation lowering Minnesota’s blood donation age from 17 to 16. And now, after a summer with the American Red Cross, he’s ready to go nationwide, even global, to help create more young donors.

“We really want something sustainable with this program,” he said. “We feel this has a lot of potential.”

The initiative, “Club 25,” will target young adults ages 16-25 in hopes that more will donate blood during the years they are less likely to donate.

Though still in its infancy, Gibson said the program will eventually utilize the all-important networks already close to the age group — Internet, text messaging and face-to-face marketing — and challenge them to donate 25 times before age 25.

All the while, they’ll facilitate connections and create pride in hopes of generating life-long donors.

“We don’t want to see it work, we want to make it work,” said Gibson, adding that he’s working on the effort with a group of 30 youth. “It’s an idea that we all love that has so much potential.”

Gibson brought the initiative to the Midwest after learning of a similar program in Zimbabwe called “Pledge 25,” which responded to the AIDS epidemic in the African country.

“I fell in love with the program,” he said.

While it may take a year to fully implement, Gibson said he expects a 2009 launch across the Midwest or the nation, with hopes it will go international.

“We’re still in our initial stages of planning, and we’re still really deciding what we need to do with this,” he said. “We are looking at something that could be the largest youth program in the world.”

Local Red Cross staff are thrilled about the young man’s efforts, saying that Gibson will help fill an important donation gap.

“I think it’s a phenomenal project for someone who is young and energetic and is really new to Red Cross,” said Aaron Stewart, emergency services coordinator for the Mower County Red Cross chapter.

“This is typically a period of interruption when people go to college, and that doesn’t need to happen,” he added.

Stewart said even Gibson’s work at the legislature has encouraged more youth interest and participation, including in typical areas such as disaster response, public safety and volunteerism.

“We’re kind of catching a wave as a chapter,” he said.

Jacob Ewert, 17, said he went to August Mower County blood drive because of an agreement he made with friends, who also donated.

Though skittish of needles, he responded positively about the experience.

“It wasn’t too bad,” he said. “I feel really good too.”

The blood drive takes place from noon to 6 p.m. today at Oak Park Mall. Walk-ins are welcome.