Sign up to save a life
Giving the gift of life is as easy as going to the TSC Ballroom today. Organ Donor Awareness Day, sponsored by the Student Health and Wellness Center, is going on. The event will allow students, faculty and staff to become educated on organ and tissue donation and even sign up to become a donor.
Featured speakers include organ recipients, including Mike Strauss, USU’s athletic media relations director, and a living donor who gave a kidney. There will also be a video about a family that has been affected by organ donation.
April is Organ Donor Awareness Month, so the Wellness Center and Intermountain Donor Services decided to plan the event to help raise awareness on campus.
Tiffany Adams, a senior majoring in community health and an employee at the Wellness Center, said there aren’t any activities on campus about organ donation, so she wanted to implement something.
“There are a lot of misconceptions about organ donation,” Adams said. “Like the doctor won’t try to save you if you are an organ donor. That’s just not true.”
Other misconceptions people have include that the family will be charged for the donation or that they can’t have an open casket funeral. Also, people can donate at any age as long as their organs are usable.
Adams also said that signing up to be a donor isn’t enough.
“Become a donor on your driver’s license,” Adams said. “But your family decides if your organs are donated when you die. So you have to tell your family how you feel about it.” The first 50 people will get a free coupon for Hazel’s bread. All students, faculty and staff are invited to attend the event and can go any time between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m.