NOTDAW

National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Week, NOTDAW, is April 18-24 this year. The Life Donation Awareness Association took on many endeavors and touched the community from all different directions.

April 15, 16 and 17 there were information booths hosted at three malls in the Region of Waterloo, Cambridge Centre, Fairview Mall and Stone Road Mall in Guelph.

Cambridge Centre, Andrea, Kelly and fellow Kidney Donor (passer-by)

Stone Road Mall Team

Team members from the group went to several high schools across Waterloo and Wellington. They made great efforts to raise awareness amongst the young people of the community. I'm so proud of them! They had great success! The intent was to have students in each school take it upon themselves to design some kind of campaign. Suggested ideas included "Wear Your Green", "Living Green Ribbon" and competitions between schools. As you can see from the pic below, many students embraced the challenge!

Preston High, Wear Your Green

My good friend and fellow organ recipient, Carol, has taken a project on herself in elementary schools. This is a fantastic program I can't say enough about. She has designed a class lesson for grade 7 students that the teacher can "plug and play". She has included all details of teaching the project including a marking scheme. The students really enjoyed the project and the parents especially learned a lot about organ and tissue donation. I'm so impressed with the work Carol has been doing and I can't wait to see her progress next year.

Sample Grade 7 Project, used throughout the community to raise awareness

Under the guidance of Judy, the donor coordinator for Waterloo/Wellington, we hosted information booths at three hospitals, Grand River, St. Mary's General and Guelph General.

St. Mary's General Hospital information booth

Andrea with the hospital President, Don Shilton

I would like to share that the main purpose in posting these awareness projects is to show everyone what is possible to make a difference and save lives. These projects are simple to implement in any community. We have been working with no funds so far, just the incredible support of Trillium Gift of Life Network. They supply us with the literature and give-aways for our events. All you need is the volunteer power to coordinate. If you would like to try to plan a project in your area, I would love to give you some advice and support. Contact me at andrea@lifedonationawareness.com.