Donate Life Pennsylvania Celebrates National Donor Day with Custom Cards
I love you with all of my…kidney? Each year, Valentine’s Day coincides with National Donor Day, and for the second year in a row, Donate Life Pennsylvania is inviting everyone to get ready for February 14 with custom digital greeting cards that celebrate both occasions.
“I would let my heart be yours,” reads one of the cards. Another says, “I love you with all of my kidney.” And finally, “Liver, laugh, love.”
Beginning today, anyone can share the organ-shaped cards on social media, by email or by print-at-home cards. All three designs are available here: donatelifepa.org/realvalentines.
“Both National Donor Day and Valentine’s Day embody love and giving, so it is very fitting that they fall on the same day. Donor Day celebrates all those people who have given others a second chance at life through the selfless act of donation,” said Howard M. Nathan, president and CEO of Gift of Life (GOL) Donor Program in Philadelphia. “This important day provides us with the opportunity to reflect upon the generosity of donors and donor families who have helped to save so many lives. We encourage everyone to register as organ and tissue donors and to talk about donation with loved ones”.
“Not many people open an envelope on February 14 and expect to see a kidney. But it’s fun, and it helps get the message across that registering as an organ and tissue donor is an act of love. Every one of the 115,000 people on the transplant waiting list nationwide hopes to spend Valentine’s Day with someone they love — this year, next year and far into the future. It only takes 30 seconds to register as a donor at donatelifepa.org/registration — much quicker than buying a box of chocolates or a dozen roses,” said Susan Stuart, president and CEO of the Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE) in Pittsburgh.
Designated specifically to coincide with Valentine’s Day, National Donor Day was established in 1998 by several private companies, nonprofit health organizations and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services as a day to reflect on the need for organ, eye, tissue, marrow, platelet and blood donations.
More than 8,000 people in Pennsylvania are currently on the waiting list for a life-saving organ transplant. Each organ donor can save up to eight lives, and each tissue donor can improve up to 75 lives.
Anyone, regardless of age or medical history, can sign up to be a donor; there is no cost to donors and their families; and all major religions in the United States support organ and tissue donation and consider donation a final act of love and generosity toward others. Registering as an organ and tissue donor only takes 30 seconds and can be done at donatelifepa.org/registration.
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About Donate Life PA
Donate Life Pennsylvania is a collaborative initiative between the Pennsylvania Departments of Health, Education and Transportation and Pennsylvania’s two organ procurement organizations, the Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE) and Gift of Life Donor Program (GOL). It is funded by residents of Pennsylvania through voluntary contributions included with driver’s license renewals, vehicle registrations and state income tax filings, or through direct check donations to the Governor Robert P. Casey Memorial Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Trust Fund in care of the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Trust Fund contributions are used to educate Pennsylvanians, build awareness about the importance of organ & tissue donation and increase the number of people who sign up to become organ donors on their driver’s license or state identification cards. More information is available at donatelifepa.org or Facebook.com/DonateLifePennsylvania.
About the Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE)
CORE is one of 58 federally designated not-for-profit OPOs in the United States. CORE works closely with donor families and designated health care professionals to coordinate the surgical recovery of organs, tissues and corneas for transplantation. CORE also facilitates the computerized matching of donated organs and placement of corneas. With headquarters in Pittsburgh and an office in Charleston, West Virginia, CORE oversees a region that encompasses 155 hospitals and almost six million people throughout western Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Chemung County, New York.
About Gift of Life Donor Program (GOL)
Since 1974, Gift of Life has coordinated more than 46,000 organs for transplant and approximately one million tissue transplants that have resulted from Gift of Life donors. One organ donor can save the lives of up to eight people, and a tissue donor can enhance the lives of up to 75 others. For more information or to register, visit donors1.org.
