Resource Newsletter Archive
Donation and Transplant Calendar Well Received
In an effort to increase awareness of organ and tissue donation each year, the Northwest Tissue Services staff gathers personal stories and photos of donors and transplant recipients and presents them in a calendar (see photo, page 2, “Annual Services”). The stories provide insight into why families decide to donate and how those gifts help transplant recipients.
The 2001 calendar project was a joint effort by three donation programs: Northwest Tissue Services, Northwest Lions Eye Bank and LifeCenter Northwest Donor Network. Twenty-four individuals, twice as many as last year, are featured. They represent the hundreds of donors and thousands of transplant recipients who receive life-saving or life-enhancing transplants annually in the Northwest.
The calendars are given to hospital staff, medical examiners, coroners and funeral home staff who assist offering the option of donation to families. Donor families, whose courageous decisions make transplants possible, also receive copies. Each group is part of the “circle of giving and receiving” every day in hospitals throughout local communities.
Donor families helped create the calendar by sharing wonderful stories about their loved ones and their own reasons for choosing to donate. Many of the families have since used the calendar to educate their communities about donation and transplant. Recipients, in turn, tell others how transplants changed their lives.
Including these stories in the calendar is a small way for the Tissue Services and fellow participating donation programs to give something back to everyone who helps to make donation happen. The calendar is a collaborative effort that links the abstract discussion of donation and transplant with real people and their personal stories; it's a thoughtful reminder of the significant impact a giving gesture makes.