Every April, Donate Life America celebrates National Donate Life Month, focusing national attention on every individual’s power to make LIFE possible by registering their decision to be an organ, eye and tissue donor, and learning more about living donation.
To help illustrate the message of donation, Donate Life America creates unique artwork for each National Donate Life Month. 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 Donate Life rainbow in the National Donate Life Month 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 in the people that have helped carry us through life and its challenges. In turn, we have the opportunity to be rainbows in other people’s clouds through the gift of organ, eye and tissue donation. By registering to be a donor and considering living donation, you can change one ray of light into a spectrum of healing and compassion.
“While we work to increase the number of registered organ and tissue donations that save and heals lives this April, it’s important to remember this month serves to honor those who have made the selfless decision to give to others through organ and tissue donation,” said Diane Brockmeier, President and CEO of Mid-America Transplant. “We are truly inspired by the courageous decision made by donors and donor families to help others in a time of unimaginable grief.”
You can register your decision to be an organ, eye and tissue donor at RegisterMe.org or in the Medical ID tab of the iPhone Health app. To learn more about being a living donor, please visit DonateLife.net.
We celebrate that 56 percent of U.S. adults have registered their decision to make LIFE possible and be organ, eye and tissue donors at the time of their death. Yet the number of people in need of transplants continues to outpace the number of organs donated. Currently, 116,000** people are waiting for a transplant and a second chance at life. On average, 22 people die each day because the organ they need is not donated in time—that is almost one person dying every hour. You can help by registering your decision to be an organ, eye and tissue donor, and learning more about living donation.
*Maya Angelou™ is a trademark licensed by Caged Bird Legacy, LLC
**Data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) as of December 11, 2017
About Mid-America Transplant
Mid-America Transplant enables adults and children to receive lifesaving gifts through organ and tissue donations. For more than 40 years, it has facilitated and coordinated organ and tissue donation, and now serves 84 counties covering eastern Missouri, southern Illinois and northeast Arkansas that together are home to 4.7 million people. It saves lives by providing expert and compassionate care for organ and tissue donors, recipients and families, and transforms the clinical processes required to recover and transplant organs and tissues. Mid-America Transplant was the first such organization in the U.S. to use an in-house operating room for organ recovery and pioneered innovative models of increasing donor registry enrollment to provide more organs and tissues to those in need. It is federally designated as one of 58 such organizations in the U.S., and is the first organ procurement organization to be recognized as a recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Performance Excellence and a three-time recipient of the Missouri Quality Award.
About Donate Life America
Donate Life America (DLA) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization leading its national partners and Donate Life State Teams to increase the number of donated organs, eyes and tissue available to save and heal lives. DLA manages and promotes Donate Life℠, the national brand for the cause of donation; motivates the public to register as organ, eye and tissue donors; provides education about living donation; manages the National Donate Life Registry at RegisterMe.org; and develops and executes effective multi-media campaigns to promote donation.