Donate Life Month
Download MP3Live from the Norman D. Kalmin Podcast Studio, this is the Hearts Afire podcast, the podcast for the team at BioBridge Global working every day to save and enhance lives to the healing power of human cells and tissues. This is not the East Texas swang no. Twang. Twang slang of David King. This is your cohost Kimberly Monroe and Susan Smith.
Kimberly:And we are here to talk about, I think, something, Susan, that is really near and dear to both our hearts. Yeah, which is?
Susan:It would be Donate Life Month, National Donate Life Month.
Kimberly:National Donate Life Month. And so, this is really special to our folks who work here in our tissue department where we are entrusted with amazing gifts from families and individuals who have made the decision to donate their tissue to help patients in need. So we'll talk a little bit about, like, what Donate Life Month is and a bit about how the folks here at BBG are going to celebrate with us, we hope. Yes, ma'am. Okay.
Kimberly:So, Donate Life Month, as Susan mentioned, it's a national observance. And it was actually started by an organization called Donate Life America. So DLA, as we affectionately call it Donate Life America, is a nonprofit organization that leads its national partners and donate life state teams to help increase the number of donated organs, eyes and tissues available to save and heal lives through transplant. And they also work to develop a culture where donation is embraced as a fundamental human responsibility. And DLA is an amazing organization on a national level.
Kimberly:They educate and they advocate for donation and really try to ensure that folks are knowledgeable about the opportunity to be able to give the gift of life through Organ Eye and tissue donation. DLA was started actually back in 1992 as the coalition on donation and it was an initiative by the donation and transplant community. So it's kind of one of those created by and for the community that it serves. They changed their name in 2,006 in response to extensive research and a desire to align the organization, in its prior form with the Donate Life brand. So a lot of you here at BBG may see some of our tissue team or other folks who wanna be supportive of the tissue efforts wear t shirts or other items that have that Donate Life blue and green logo emblazoned on it.
Kimberly:So DLA sort of became one organization that, used to be the coalition of donation, but also merged to better represent a cohesive brand for donate life. And, over the past 31 years, DLA and its community have registered, check this out, 170,000,000 organ, eye and tissue donors in the U. S. And that's a lot of people. That's very cool.
Kimberly:Yeah. So National Donate Life Month is actually an entire month of activities to help encourage people to register as donors and of course to honor those who have saved lives through the gift of donation. And, the cool thing about Donate Life Month is that there are so many different ways for not just donation agencies, but also the partners that they work with, people who are interested in promoting donation, donor families, transplant recipients. It's really a time for all of those folks to be able to celebrate and to host activities in in so many different ways. And we'll talk a little bit about what we're gonna do here.
Kimberly:There we go. And to piggyback off what Kimberly just said, when they talk about saving lives, tissue donation also helps to enhance lives.
Susan:And I wanna share very quickly, each year, Donate Life Month has a theme. And this year's theme is donors are superstars. And Donate Life America was inspired by the night sky and the billions of stars that make up the universe. Stars remind us that even in the darkest night, there is light. Your decision to be an organ, eye, and tissue donor gives hope and light to the 100,000 people on the national transplant waiting list who are waiting for a second chance at life or via tissue donation to have lives enhanced, that's why donors are superstars.
Kimberly:I love it. And I love the way that, DLA makes it really, really easy for partners like us to be able to promote the month and the activities. They create this really cool website where partners can log in. We can download everything from marketing materials, logos, press releases, templates for proclamations. So there's a lot of great opportunity for us to be able to utilize those materials and those resources and really create a a nationally cohesive branding strategy for promoting what the month is all about.
Susan:And Kimberly, before we go further into the activities that we're gonna promote here for our employees, can you touch base on Donate Life Texas? Texas? Yes. Because I know that folks have heard talk about Donate Life Texas as well.
Kimberly:I think that's a really great question. So, in my earlier description about who Donate Life America is, I mentioned that they work with their Donate Life State team. So Donate Life Texas is one of those teams. Every state has a team and they have leadership for that team. It may look a little bit different from state to state.
Kimberly:And Donate Life Texas is actually the state team here that we and all of the other OPOs, tissue banks and eye banks across the state of Texas work with. And for those of you who don't know, an OPO is an organ procurement organization.
Susan:How did you know I was gonna ask you that?
Kimberly:I figured you would. So, the great thing about DOT is that they, number 1, are the only official organ, eye and tissue donor registry for the state of Texas. So when you either say yes to the question, would you like to be an organ donor, when you're getting your license at DPS Or if you go online to donate life texas texas.org and sign up as a donor there, Donate Life Texas is the organization that actually administers the registry. So that's one of their most important roles but they also have a role of providing, community education, advocacy, information and and many different other initiatives across the state in partnership with the, donation agencies in the state of Texas to really encourage folks to become donors and to help save and enhance lives. Nice.
Kimberly:Yep. Alright. Should we go on to the spirit week? I think we should go on to spirit week. Every time I hear spirit week, I get, like, high school flashbacks.
Susan:Woo hoo. Pompoms over here. We've got spirit. Yes. We do.
Susan:Right, spirit? How about you? Oh, green and blue. Good one. Hey, that reminds me of an activity we're gonna have during spirit week.
Susan:And forgive me, Kimberly, if you already talked about this. So during Donate Life Month, there is 1 week, dedicated to the spirit of Donate Life Month called Spirit Week. And, there is a calendar on Donate Life America. There's all sorts of activities that, the month encompasses and also that spirit week itself encompasses. We over we, BioBridge Global, over the last, what, 5 years or so, really tried to make it personal to our employees here mostly in San Antonio.
Susan:And hopefully, also opportunities for our folks in Atlanta and other area fixed sites, Victoria, the Rio Grande Valley. So this year, our spirit week starts today, April 8th, and runs through officially this Friday, April 12th. So, today, you should see when you come you should you will see when you come to the donor pavilion lobby, our altar will be out again. It's the one that we've used for Muertos Fest. We used it last year for Donate Life Month.
Susan:It will be decorated in this year's Donate Life Month theme. And on Monday, we will have message cards there. And you can write messages of hope to our donors who are waiting for some sort of transplant, organ, cornea, or tissue. Then Tuesday, we're having something new to us called Rock Chalk Day. Those of you who've been here for a few years know that those days used to be separate.
Susan:We had a day for folks to come out and paint rocks for the legacy garden, And we had a separate day for people to come and watch Roberto do a chalk drawing about donate life. We're combining those this year and enhancing the chalk drawing side of things, and that will be from 11 to 1. The messages of hope will actually start Monday, 9 ish, and that will go through the whole week. We'll have those message cards up all week that you can place on the altar. Wednesday, we're taking an off day, so to speak.
Susan:And then Thursday, we're looking this year to do blue and green snacks. And we'll have those in the canteens here, donor pavilion, second floor. I have to remember how many floors are here now. Headquarters, 3rd floor. And then Friday 12th is National Blue and Green Day.
Susan:And as we've done in years past, we will ask all of our employees to wear blue and green, and we will gather in the headquarters lobby at 11:30 to have our annual group photo taken. Awesome. And so that's the official week. Any questions on that, Kimberly?
Kimberly:No. That's actually one of my favorite act well, my 2 favorite activities are I love to watch Roberto do the chalk drawing. And of course, to see all the smiling faces of the BBG employees who don their blue and green and show up for the photo is also one of my very favorite things. So looking forward to all of the activities, but definitely those 2.
Susan:And I think you both, Kimberly, David sitting in the room, know that one of my favorite activities is the rock painting for the legacy garden because that is a project that is near and dear to my heart. And even though it doesn't take place this week during spirit week, I want to invite everyone to come out to the garden on Saturday, April 20th. That will be our annual replant rejuvenation of the legacy garden. We have our tissue donor families come out. Staff come out.
Susan:It really is a special, almost magical time for folks to get to know
Kimberly:each other to support our tissue donor families, and that will be from 9 until noon ish. And, you know, Susan, for those folks who might be new to the organization, can you tell them a little bit about what the legacy garden is and what it represents and why you decided to, have it started here at actually at the donor pavilion.
Susan:At the donor pavilion. I'd be happy to. Thanks. It started this will be its 8th year And when I initiated it, it was sitting in my heart from personal experience and with working working with donor families. Families might not be able to get to a cemetery for whatever reason.
Susan:It might be too difficult emotionally for them. Loved ones might be buried out of town. For whatever reason, I wanted a place here on our campus that families could access 20 fourseven so they could come and be with their loved ones. And when we first started this, it was I have to put a picture somewhere, David just a plot of cement basically that over the course of the years and with love and some blood, sweat, and tears literally, it has morphed into evolved, I should say, organically evolved into this lovely garden that our tissue donor families do come and spend time in. I invite folks to come.
Susan:It's outside of the Donor Pavilion. You will see legacy markers from some of our tissue donor families. You'll notice wind chimes. Families will bring plants that remind them of their loved ones. And I've had numerous families tell me now that they do find solace in coming to the garden on the weekends, at nights, and now that it's staying lighter later,
Kimberly:yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. And so it's a a great opportunity during Donate Life Month to be able to participate in helping to, care for something that provides a a really special place for not just our donor families but also for people who work here or visit here to give blood, to just visit with it, to see how beautiful it is. It's just a really it's an awesome, thing to to be able to have here.
Susan:And I'm gonna add one other thing. Those of you that know me know I'm pretty passionate about this as well. I know it's hard for people to talk about the tissue donation side of things because a death has to occur, and that is hard. It's heart tugging. However, once you get to know one gets to know our tissue donor families, there's so much love and life in them and it gives us a chance to interact beyond the death.
Kimberly:Yep. And I think that really encompasses what, Donate Life Month is really all about. It's the idea that, we can appreciate, the the complexity of death and grief and the that needing to happen in order for donation to happen, but also understanding that it is a celebration of those who are willing to give the gift, those for whom it provides hope and healing. So it's like we can acknowledge that all of those things are true at the same time and and also have a little bit of fun.
Susan:Absolutely. And all donations, right, organ, cornea, tissue, they leave legacies. Yes. Hence, legacy garden. Hence, legacy garden.
Kimberly:I love that. Awesome. So we've got the Spirit Week activities starting today all the way through Friday. And then we also have the opportunity for folks to come out and help to replant the legacy garden on 20th. And information can be found on One BBG.
Kimberly:Okay. So you all know if you if you forget what time and what location something that that's where you go to find these things out. In that right David King. Can I get a nod?
Susan:David King nods. And as always, if people have questions, they can ask me if y'all can find me. And for those of you that don't know, I now live in the Donor Pavilion.
Kimberly:Awesome. Well, thanks, Susan, for having this chat.
Kimberly:It's been really me and you and David and the folks here at the Hearts of Fire podcast to tell, our lovely team here at BBG all the ways that they can get involved and help us celebrate Donate Life Month. Absolutely.
David:Executive producers of the Hearts Afire podcast are Adrienne Mendoza and Jay Podjenski. Director today was David King with East Texas twang who didn't get on the microphone until just now. We had technical assistance today from Matthew Flores. The Hearts Afire podcast logo was designed by Roberto Esquivel. If you have an idea for the our podcast, if you'd like to be on the Hearts Afire podcast, if you'd like to encourage Kimberly to come back and be the host instead of me, email us, heartsafire at bioridgeglobal.org.
David:And thanks for listening.
