The Alabama Organ Center Celebrates National Donate Life Month
and
National Blue and Green Day
National Donate Life Month is about saving and healing lives through organ, eye and tissue donation. Every April, Donate Life America and the Alabama Organ Center focuses state and national attention on how every individual has the potential to make LIFE possible by registering his or her decision to be an organ, eye and tissue donor and by considering being a living donor.
Donate Life America creates unique artwork for National Donate Life Month that illustrates the power of donation. The 2018 National Donate Life Month (NDLM) art was inspired by the image of a rainbow, and Maya Angelou’s quote, “Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.”*
Often following a storm, the presence of a rainbow provides optimism and motivates us to endure through dark times. Organ, eye and tissue donation is the bridge of comfort and hope between one family’s mourning and another’s healing – turning tragedy into renewed life. The vibrant Donate Life rainbow in the NDLM artwork rises from stormy clouds, recognizing that it takes both rain and light to create the gift of a rainbow.
Maya Angelou’s message applies to all of us, no matter our background or experiences. We all know rainbows – people that have helped carry us through life and its challenges. In turn, we may also have the opportunity to be rainbows in other people’s clouds through the gift of organ, eye and tissue donation. This April, we encourage you to reflect on the lives of those touched by donation and transplantation, and to share its colorful effect. By registering to be a donor or considering living donation, you can change one ray of light into a spectrum of healing and compassion.
National Blue & Green Day will be celebrated on Friday, April 13th. In an effort to promote organ, eye, tissue and living donation supporters will wear blue and green. Several locations across the state will be blue and/or green on and around April 13th, including:
- RSA Tower in Montgomery
- Renaissance Mobile Riverview Plaza Hotel
- Children’s of Alabama
- The Kirklin Clinic of UAB Hospital Fountain
- Iconic Birmingham Sign at Regions Field
- REV Birmingham’s “Birmingham Lights” 4 tunnels at 14th, 18th, 20th and 22nd Streets
- Vestavia Hills Southern Gateway and Sibyl Temple
- City of Fairhope Fountain
“The act of registering your decision to be an organ, eye and tissue donor takes less than a minute. This one action can serve as a life-saving opportunity for those in need,” states Chris Meeks, Executive Director of the Alabama Organ Center. “One donor can save or enhance the lives of more than 75 people.”
You can register your decision to make LIFE possible and be an organ, eye and tissue donor at www.alabamaorgancenter.org.
Currently, 56 percent of the U.S. adult populations are registered organ, eye and tissue donors, 35 percent in Alabama. Yet the number of people in need of transplants continues to outpace the number of organs donated. More than 114,000* people nationally are waiting for a transplant and a second chance at life. On average, 20 people die each day because the organ they need is not donated in time. That is almost one person dying every hour. Registering your decision to become a donor is the most effective way to save lives through donation and is a sign of support to those who continue to wait.
About the Alabama Organ Center (AOC)
The AOC is the federally designated, nonprofit, organ procurement organization for the state of Alabama. As such, we coordinate organ and tissue donation for transplantation and research. We are dedicated to working with our healthcare and community partners to support donor families, facilitate donation and provide community education to empower people to take action to become an organ and tissue donor. For more information about the Alabama Organ Center, visit us at www.alabamaorgancenter.org.
About Donate Life America
Donate Life America is a 501(c)3 nonprofit alliance of national organizations and Donate Life State Teams across the United States committed to increasing the number of donated organs, eyes and tissues available for transplant to save and heal lives. Donate Life America manages and promotes the national brand for donation, Donate Life℠; develops and executes effective multi-media donor education programs; motivates the American public to register now as organ, eye and tissue donors; maintains the National Donate Life Registry, RegisterMe.org; and assists Donate Life State Teams and national partners in facilitating high-performing donor registration programs.
*Maya AngelouTM is a trademark licensed by Caged Bird Legacy, LLC
*Data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) as of March 12, 2018