Donate Life America (DLA), Donate Life State Teams and Mid-America Transplant are dedicating the week of September 23-27, 2019, to saying thank you to Motor Vehicle Departments (DMVs) across the country for their commitment to asking the donor registration question to DMV customers every day. The vast majority of donor registrations in the U.S. come through DMV and driver’s license partner transactions. DMV offices and their employees play an invaluable role in increasing the number of registered organ, eye and tissue donors. Through their dedication to the Donate Life mission, DMV leadership and staff help save and heal lives.

National DMV Appreciation Week is a one-week celebration held each year in the last week of September. During this week, the Donate Life Community celebrates this vital partnership through local events and outreach expressing gratitude to DMV and driver’s license partner staff and leadership across the country.

Mid-America Transplant will be celebrating National DMV Appreciation Week by recognizing local driver's license offices. Recognition will acknowledge office efforts and individual dedication to successfully increase donor registration and overall support of the organization's lifesaving mission: to save lives through organ and tissue donation.

Donate Life America also announced it named Illinois Secretary of State Jesse White as the national recipient of the DLA DMV Innovation Award. The Innovation Award recognizes a DMV or driver’s licensing partner (DLP) office(s) that has implemented a unique and engaging event, activity or practice that demonstrates how the Donate Life mission is a part of their DMV or DLP office culture. Sec. White will be recognized at the 2019 AAMVA International Conference (AIC). 

To register your decision to be an organ, eye and tissue donor, please visit your local DMV or driver’s license partner office, or register online in the National Donate Life Registry at SayYesGiveLife.org or in your iPhone Health App. To learn more about the DLA DMV partnership and National DMV Appreciation Week, please visit DonateLife.net/DMV.

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About Donate Life America (DLA)
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 tissues 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.

Mid-America Transplant is excited to announce more students in the St. Louis area will learn about the importance of organ, eye and tissue donation via the Gift of Life Life Savers program. The Mid-America Transplant Foundation awarded a grant to Gift of Life, a Kansas City-based organization aimed at educating students about donation, to hire a part-time classroom educator for the St. Louis area.

“This is an exciting opportunity for Mid-America Transplant and Gift of Life to reach more students,” said Nicole Kellen, Director of Community Engagement at Mid-America Transplant. “We look forward to partnering with Gift of Life in educating students about this critical topic as we work to save even more lives through organ, eye and tissue donation.”

With the three-year grant, Gift of Life estimates it will be able to reach nearly 4,000 students with the lifesaving message of organ, eye and tissue donation. Mid-America Transplant’s education program currently reaches about 5,000 students annually in the region, with many touring the organization’s facility in St. Louis.

More than 30,000 students and their families at about 115 high schools in the greater Kansas City area receive presentations annually from Gift of Life. Over the past 20 years, Gift of Life has observed teenage registration rates double, exceeding 70 percent in some counties.

Life Savers Educator India Caffey, who will serve the St. Louis area, will begin contacting schools in October.

Charlotte Ottley learned last year her kidney was failing. On Sunday afternoon, she shared about her journey as one of 113,000 people nationwide waiting for a lifesaving transplant at the Urban Expo, hosted by the Urban League of St. Louis at America’s Center.  

Charlotte spoke about organ and tissue donation on the main stage during a break in the headlining gospel concert. Mid-America Transplant Community Outreach Coordinator, Rev. Anthony McPherson concluded the break with statistics, information and a call to join the organ and tissue donor registry at SayYesGiveLife.Org.

Charlotte told the crowd about what it is like waiting for a transplant. “I wear pants because my legs are scarred,” she said. “I wear sleeves because I’ve had needles in my arms because of dialysis. But through it all, God has dispatched angels to me to pray and lift me up.”

Her inspiring words concluded with a message about her never-quit attitude and her drive to ask others to make a difference. She encouraged the audience to make a difference in the lives of the 1,200 people waiting for a lifesaving transplant in St. Louis.

Mid-America Transplant proudly hosted a registry drive during the two-day Urban Expo event, reaching thousands of people with the inspiring message of organ and tissue donation.

There continues to be a critical shortage of donated organs in the United States among all races and ethnicities. However, minorities wait twice as long for transplants, and they continue to have a disproportionately higher incidence of diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease, all of which lead to organ failure, especially kidney failure.

National Minority Donor Awareness Week is an important effort to promote the positive messages that are necessary for the minority community to become organ and tissue donors as about 22 people die each day awaiting a transplant due to the donor shortage. The waiting list currently stands at more than 113,000 with more than 60% representing ethnic minorities.

In partnership with the Association for Multicultural Affairs in Transplantation, the 2019 National Minority Donor Awareness Week Toolkit is now available to everyone as we increase the visibility for this important cause. For resources and more information, click here.

For interview opportunities with Mid-America Transplant, contact:
Justin Phelps
314-735-8467

Mid-America Transplant unveiled its new Eye Bank, call center, and clinical office space on Wednesday with a ribbon cutting. The new work spaces are designed to improve the overall function in the organization's pursuit to make organs and tissues available to all in need.

“This is an exciting day,” said Diane Brockmeier, CEO and President of Mid-America Transplant. “It’s a beautiful space. More importantly, we’re confident this will continue to help us fulfill our mission to save lives through organ and tissue donation.”

Donor Services is Mid-America Transplant’s 24/7 call center, open 365 days per year. It fields 135,000 calls annually to identify potential donors and offer the gift of tissue donation to thousands of families.

Mid-America Transplant’s Eye Bank processes corneas for vision-saving transplants. In 2018, more than 1,100 corneas were made available for transplant.

The tissue recovery teams at Mid-America Transplant facilitated tissue donation with nearly 2,000 donors in 2018. The gifts of heart valves, skin, bone, veins and nerves from donors last year could help more than 99,000 people.

Celebrated July 14-27, 2019, ECHO Donate Life is an annual initiative focused on reaching multicultural communities with the Donate Life message. Currently, multicultural patients make up a majority of the patients waiting on the national transplant waiting list.

ECHO Donate Life is about community helping community to save and heal lives. Lifesaving conversations are best heard from trusted sources and communities. The goal of ECHO Donate Life is to provide multicultural communities with meaningful tools and resources to support conversations about the importance of donation and transplantation, and how to register your decision to be an organ, eye and tissue donor.

The ECHO Donate Life initiative engages trusted social media and community storytelling to talk about donation, highlights the importance of registering to be an organ, eye and tissue donor, honors the generosity of donors and donor families, and celebrates the lives saved in multicultural communities.

"Donation is the one thing that has the power to level the playing field in all communities, regardless of color, race, or religion. It's about every community helping every community through organ, eye, and tissue donation. Donation, in all its forms, in all its communities, has the opportunity to change and save lives," says Marion Shuck, President Elect of the Association of Multicultural Affairs in Transplantation (AMAT).

This year, ECHO Donate Life resources and outreach include:

• Walgreens ECHO Donate Life In-Store Events: On Saturday, July 20, 9am-3pm, Walgreens will be hosting donor registration drives at more than 170 stores across the country. Walgreens has been an incredible national partner in ECHO Donate Life. Walgreens support has helped to bring resources and information about the cause of donation into hundreds of communities. In St. Louis, six stores are participating in this national event, including locations at:
  • 4140 South Broadway
  • 12098 Lusher Road
  • 2202 Chambers Road
  • 7199 Natural Bridge Road
  • 3720 North Kingshighway Boulevard
  • 1400 North Grand Boulevard

• Resources: ECHO Donate Life resources and information (flyers, takeaway cards, web banners, social media graphics, videos) are available to the public for download at DonateLife.net/echo. Resources are available in English, Spanish and additional languages. Use the power of your voice to help build community by sharing your decision to register with family, friends, neighbors and coworkers. Encourage them to ECHO you and Donate Life.

• Boomerang #ECHODonateLife Challenge: DLA and AMAT are excited to host the second year of the Instagram Boomerang #ECHODonateLife Challenge. Individuals and communities share a Boomerang video on Instagram about why donation is important to them and/or what transplantation has made possible for them. Tag @donatelifeamerica, use the hashtag #ECHODonateLife Challenge and encourage people to ECHO you and register their decision to be a donor.

You can register your decision to be an organ, eye and tissue donor in the National Donate Life Registry at SayYesGiveLife.Org or in your iPhone Health App.

Data from Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) as of April 2019.

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About Mid-America Transplant
For 45 years, Mid-America Transplant 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 donors, donor families, and recipients, and transforms the clinical processes required to recover and transplant organs and tissues. Mid-America Transplant is federally designated as one of 58 such organizations in the U.S. and is the first organ and tissue procurement organization to be recognized as a recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Performance Excellence. For more information, visit www.midamericatransplant.org. 

About the Association of Multicultural Affairs in Transplantation (AMAT)
AMAT was established in 1992 to address the increasing need for organ, eye and tissue donors in the multicultural communities, while simultaneously offering support, shared expertise and professional development opportunities for its members as they save and heal lives. AMAT is a self-sustaining, self-governed organization operating solely on voluntary contributions from individuals, corporations, and other affiliated organizations.

About Donate Life America (DLA)
Donate Life America 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 tissues available to save and heal lives through transplantation while developing a culture where donation is embraced as a fundamental human responsibility. 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. For more information, please visit, DonateLife.net.

Dr. Stephen Lunde recalls walking into Gearhead Outfitters in the fall of 2018. He had started cycling just a couple years earlier to improve his health, and Gearhead was his go-to shop for cycling equipment.

On this fall day, he spotted the owner of the store. “I asked if he had thought about sponsoring an event (to support organ and tissue donation),” Dr. Lunde said. “I told him about Mid-America Transplant and my son, who was a tissue donor. He said, ‘I’m always looking for a worthy cause to back. Get back to me after Christmas.’ I called him after Christmas, and the rest is history.”

Mid-America Transplant proudly held the inaugural Inspired by Life Ride Run Walk in June 2019 in partnership with Gearhead Outfitters. About 130 people attended the event at Craighead Forest Park in Jonesboro, Arkansas to honor their loved ones and raise awareness for organ, eye, and tissue donation.

“We were hoping for 20-30 people,” Dr. Lunde said of he and his wife. “For something with no ribbons, no glory, no trophies … it’s an awareness event. What can you say?”

The event provided an opportunity for the community to remember and honor their loved one’s who gave the Gift of Life through organ, eye, and tissue donation. Dr. Lunde rode the paved trail at Craighead Forest Park in honor of his son, Adam. “Adam was gentle soul,” Dr. Lunde said. “He always felt like a square peg trying to fit in a round hole. Academically, he struggled, but he went to a trade school and did anything with his hands. He was wonderful at it.”

Adam helped up to 50 people as a tissue donor.

Attendees of the event could cycle the paved trail like Dr. Lunde or run or walk the three-mile chat trail around the lake. After the Ride Run Walk concluded, attendees heard from donor mom Roxanne Gilley. She shared stories about her 25-year-old son, Hunter. “About two months before his accident he was with a friend talking one day about being organ donors,” Roxanne said. “Both of them laughed and said, ‘Nobody would want our organs.’ Five people got his organs.”

Hunter loved music and movies and to hunt and fish. Roxanne was joined by a large group to remember Hunter. They all wore brown shirts with a take on Luke Bryan’s song “Huntin’, Fishin’ And Lovin’ Every Day.” On the back of the shirt, it says, “Huntin’ and Fishin’ and Donatin’ Them Organs. That’s what this country boy did.”

Roxanne said it was important to share his story to encourage others to donate organs and tissues. “We have two guys from our church, one is on the kidney transplant list and one is trying to get on the kidney transplant list,” she said. “I have learned how important this is. There are people of all ages who want to go on with their lives, but they need help from someone else.”

Albert Veteto attended in honor of his mother and sister, who both were tissue and cornea donors at the age of 57 after kidney complications. “My mom, she always believed in giving back,” he said. “She was a good Christian lady, and she thought that if she couldn’t use it, maybe somebody else can. There ain’t no use in getting buried and taking it with me.’”

His sister enjoyed helping people, including children and those with special needs.  “She always told us, ‘When I die, I want to give away everything I can. If somebody can use it, give it away.’ She was like my mother,” Albert said.

Amy Emmons walked for her 15-year-old son Tyler, who loved to play football, loved animals, and loved life. He hunted and fished with his grandfather, who passed away seven months earlier.

Tyler made the decision to be a donor. He was on the bone marrow donor list in honor of his uncle, who died of leukemia. When he got his driver’s permit, he chose to join the organ and tissue donor registry. “It was his decision, and that’s the kind of kid he was because he realized that if his life was taken, he could help so many more.”

Tyler helped 23 people as a tissue and cornea donor. “We’re here in memory of Tyler,” she said. “You never want them to be forgotten, and he’s certainly not. He’s still here every day with me and those he helped.”

Feeling inspired? Say yes and give life. Register your decision to be an organ, eye, and tissue donor at SayYesGiveLife.Org.

Senior nursing students in the “Introduction to Critical Care” course at Southeast Missouri State University have spent the spring semester piloting a first-of-its-kind online program on tissue and organ donation.

The initiative, “Organ and Tissue Donor Education for Undergraduate Nursing Students,” is made possible thanks to a generous grant awarded to Southeast Missouri State University by Mid-America Transplant (MT) in St. Louis, Missouri, the first organization in the world to have a retrieval center for organ and tissue donation.

The award followed a call for proposals issued by MT on the topic of organ and tissue donation to all universities in its service region. Pam Vargas, director of Southeast’s Office of Research and Sponsored Programs, announced the call to Southeast faculty.

Dr. Linda Heitman, professor in the Southeast Department of Nursing and principal investigator for the project, submitted a proposal for the online learning platform. Heitman completed her graduate research at Saint Louis University on transplantation. Following her graduation, she served on the MT Professional Advisory Board and worked to promote organ procurement at Southeast Hospital, now SoutheastHEALTH, before joining the Southeast faculty.

A Nursing Education Grant team was assembled with MT staff.

“Together, we explored disparities in organ and tissue donation education for nursing students, and we created a learning platform to provide current, comprehensive information to address those disparities,” Heitman said.

“The online program provides nurse educators with current, comprehensive information about organ and tissue donation for inclusion in nursing school curriculums,” Heitman said. “Through the program, nursing students will gain a clearer understanding of the role of an organ procurement organization (OPO), in this case, Mid-America Transplant.”

MT helps donor families through moments of grief and loss, supports transplant patients and facilitates safe, reliable donations for transplant. 

Southeast President Carlos Vargas and his wife, Pam, recently visited MT’s St. Louis facilities.

“I was very impressed with the site and interested in developing a relationship with Mid-America Transplant,” President Vargas said.

The online program consists of five learning modules, including an Introduction and Pre-test, Overview of Organ Donation, the Nurse’s Role in Organ and Tissue Donation, Family Bereavement and Aftercare, and a Post-test with a Course Evaluation and Certificate of Completion. Each module consists of a narrative, videos, a forum for discussion, a quiz and reference list.

The videos include interviews with MT doctors and nurses, a video tour of MT’s facilities in St. Louis, a behind-the-scenes look at the MT’s Recovery and Call center, a step-by-step guided instruction of the donation recovery and process, in-depth review and definition of brain death determination, and bereavement care for the donors’ families. The multifaceted role of nurses and the organ procurement agency was illustrated throughout each module.

Southeast nursing student Teresa Stephens of St. Louis, Missouri, said comprehensive information on organ and tissue donation and donor care aren’t typical nursing curriculum topics, but that knowledge can be vital in their everyday jobs as nurses, even before graduating.

“We’re encountering potential donors in our clinicals, including two this semester, so if we hadn’t had that program we’d never have known how to care for those patients,” she said.

Heitman said she began realizing the program was making a difference in the students’ understanding’ during an interaction with a student while caring for a patient during a Critical Care clinical experience.

“We stepped out of the patient’s room and I said, ‘I’d like to talk to you for just a few moments about the process of brain death determination.’ She looked at me and said, ‘Dr. Heitman, I have completed Module 4 (of the program), I understand the process.’ It was an epiphany, that moment when I realized the program was having an impact and making a difference because one of the most difficult concepts for a student to understand is that concept of determination of brain death.”

Kevin Lee, vice president of external affairs at MT, said, “Nurses play a critical role in not just identifying a potential donor, but in initiating the donation process through early notification to MT and supporting the families throughout the process.”

For Southeast nursing student Amy Krebs of Breese, Illinois, completing the program boosted her confidence in understanding the fundamentals of organ donation and sharing that information with others.

“Just learning about the beauty of donation and how many lives we can save was amazing,” she said. “I’ve even encouraged my family to be donors and to share the knowledge I’ve learned with them. To be able to answer questions for them was awesome. I’ve wanted to be an organ donor, but this program has changed my thought process of just how beautiful donation is.”

One organ and tissue donor can save and heal more than 75 lives, Lee said. That can positively impact patients and families across the country.

“In 2018, it was our privilege at Mid-America Transplant to work with 260 families that said yes to organ donation, and that resulted in 629 lifesaving organs from 196 organ donors,” Lee said. “We’re talking about lives saved, gifts that allow a transplant recipient to have their first day of school, or walk their daughter down the aisle, or celebrate Thanksgiving with their family. Those things take place through selfless sacrifice. We also had the opportunity to work with 1,986 tissue families. That’s nearly 100,000 tissue grafts that are made available throughout the United States. Those are burn victims, those are people who need a stint in their leg, cancer survivors – it’s a massive impact.”

The pilot study revealed that more than half of the students who participated in the pilot study have seen that impact in their own lives, whether through a family member or friends who were donors or recipients.

The Bereavement module of the program shares what MT does to honor donors and their families, and how nurses are an important aspect of that process as well. They learned about donor tributes from moments of silence, music and blankets during donation operations to the Path of Honor – another program initiated in Cape Girardeau at Saint Francis Medical Center – when family, friends and staff line a hospital’s halls to honor donors as they make their way to donate.

Southeast nursing student McKenzie Lynch participated in that first Path of Honor to remember her high school friend. The program, coupled with her memories, have helped her learn about how, as a nurse, she can be there for patients and their families.

“I learned about what the nurses and healthcare staff do and how to put ourselves in the families’ situations, to be more compassionate, understanding and caring,” she said.

Southeast nursing student Gavin Brown of Cape Girardeau agreed, saying “The program taught us how to take care of our patients as well as the families -- that it’s just as important to take care of families. They are going to be the ones making a decision, so you really keep them in your thoughts as well.”

Making the program comprehensive and compliant with current organ and tissue donation protocols provides the students with the knowledge they need to help patients and families make informed end-of-life decisions, Heitman said.

Students also learned the various cultural and religious aspects of donation, and the importance of Bereavement Care for donor families and support for themselves as nurses.

The death of a patient is difficult. “Working with donors and families is also a very emotional experience for nurses,” Heitman said. “We, as nurses, go through a grieving process. The grant team felt it was essential to include the importance of emotional support for nurses and entire health care team involved in the donation process.”

“We truly put so much effort into trying to keep them (our patients) alive. To watch them pass would be really hard and you don’t realize that until you go through it,” said Southeast nursing student Ashley Tilley of Bloomfield, Missouri. “I feel like there’s this stigma as nurses that you have to keep up or that you have to get over it and not take it home with you, but I think if you’re really being compassionate with your patients in the way that you should be, you’re going to probably take it home with you. I just didn’t realize that until I felt that, until I saw it. I didn’t even know that was a thing to provide nurses with emotional support, but I definitely see how that would be important.”

“Having those discussions as part of their nursing education and knowing how to participate in MT’s supportive events and grief centers, prepares the students to provide better end-of-life care to patients and their families,” said Heitman.

No matter where the students begin their nursing careers, organ and tissue donation will at some point be a part of their professional responsibility. The “Organ Donor Education for Undergraduate Nursing Students” program will have provided the tools and knowledge they will need to for their patients and their families, as well as themselves and the health care team they will be a part of,” said Heitman.

“Bedside nurses are vital in the organ and tissue donation process,” Lee said. “This project set out to empower the end-of life wishes of patients and families, and for the students, soon to be nurses, to have the skills and knowledge to help in that process.”

The knowledge gained by Southeast students from completing this online learning platform has the potential to improve their early detection of potential donors, enhance the donation process for the patients they care for and their families, and help them understand the significant, multifaceted role of the OPO to assist nurses throughout the process.

The program will be shared with undergraduate nursing schools in the MT service region in phases. The first phase will begin this fall with Saint Louis University, Goldfarb School of Nursing, University of Missouri–St. Louis and Arkansas State University. Southeast students will be included. It is estimated that potentially 300 students will be enrolled in the program this fall.

The grant team will present an overview of the platform and the results of the pilot study at the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations in Houston, Texas, this summer.

With the positive results, evaluations and dynamic student interest and involvement in this semester’s study, we feel the program’s potential is unlimited, said Heitman.

“This was truly a team effort between Southeast and MT. Our students were amazingly engaged throughout the semester, and, as a result, are now more prepared,” she said. “Nursing programs have not had this level of education regarding organ and tissue donation in the past. The team that created this online platform hopes that by sharing it we can help to improve the process of organ and tissues donation for nurses, patients and families in the future.”

MT hopes to one day share the program with the 73 universities and schools of nursing within its service area.

“We believe this program is going to be very successful because nothing like it truly exists,” Lee said. “We’re proud to say it started at Southeast.”

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About Mid-America Transplant
For 45 years, Mid-America Transplant 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 donors, donor families, and recipients, and transforms the clinical processes required to recover and transplant organs and tissues. Mid-America Transplant is federally designated as one of 58 such organizations in the U.S. and is the first organ and tissue procurement organization to be recognized as a recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Performance Excellence. For more information, visit www.midamericatransplant.org. 

More than 4,500 people participated in an on-field parade around the warning track at Busch Stadium on Sunday for Transplant Awareness Day with the St. Louis Cardinals. Donor families, transplant recipients and patients waiting honored donors with the trek around the track, holding signs and banners. Representatives with the St. Louis Cardinals said this is the largest attendance for an on-field parade.

Fans with a theme ticket to the game sponsored by Barnes-Jewish Hospital received a special Donate Life-themed St. Louis Cardinals hat. The black hat incorporated the Donate Life shades of blue and green into the Cardinal bird logo.

An unexpected meeting between a donor family and recipient has also made national news. Watch the inspiring video here.

For more photos, visit our Facebook page album from the event.

Gage Coble always looked to help others as a classmate, coach, friend. As a musician, he grew out his hair, not to look like a rock star, but to donate to cancer patients through Locks of Love. As a friend, he would sometimes ask for extra lunch money for classmates who didn’t have lunch.

When Gage died in 2017 at 15-years-old, his giving nature made organ and tissue donation a natural decision for his family. On Tuesday night in front of 5,000 people, Gage’s father, Dave, threw out the first pitch before Missouri State’s baseball game in the second year of Mid-America Transplant's Green Up Game series. 

“When a family goes through what we went through, sometimes it’s dark; sometimes it’s lonely,” Dave said. “To have the opportunity to come out for an event like this really reminds us of how important the impact is from the decisions we made.”

With about 50 people – representing donor families and transplant recipients – standing in a semicircle between first and third bases behind the mound, Dave tossed a strike. “I think he would have been proud I threw a strike,” Dave said of Gage. “I think he would have been overwhelmed by the number of families and the numbers of people helped through this program.”

Gage's gifts are inspiring. He saved six lives through organ donation, gave the gift of sight to two people, and helped countless more through tissue donation.

#liveforbraeden

Braeden Sconce’s family and friends were among the crowd surrounding Dave for the first pitch. Braeden’s family attended to honor the 19-year-old who helped 24 people in 23 locations in the United States and South America as an organ and tissue donor.  

“He was a passionate organ donor,” said Shelly Sconce, Braeden’s mother. “He signed up, without question, when he got his license. And always advocating for it, so it was very natural for us to donate.”

Braeden was in a car accident on Highway 5 near Lebanon, Mo. in 2018. He was in the hospital for 23 days after the accident.

The family wore green shirts Tuesday, inscribed with #liveforbraeden and the Bible verse he lived by: Galatians 6:9 Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.

“For 23 days, we thought his harvest was going to be recovering from the injury and preserving,” Shelly said. “But he had a different story. God had different plans, and his perseverance and his harvest is in the lives of 24 other people and everyone that he came into contact with.”