Philadelphia, PA –National Donate Life Month, celebrated each April, is usually filled with events recognizing the life-saving and life-enhancing power of organ and tissue donation. This year, all public events have been postponed due to COVID-19. But the need for life-saving organ transplants cannot wait. Gift of Life Donor Program continues to work 24/7 for the about 5,000 men, women and children in our region waiting for a second chance at life. National Donate Life Month helps to encourage Americans to register as organ, eye and tissue donors and to honor those that have saved lives through the gift of donation.
Our region is the most generous in the nation for organ donation, with the most organ donors and life-saving transplants each year. This sense of community, compassion and responsibility for one another is needed now, more than ever. Throughout April, buildings across the Commonwealth will light up blue and green, the colors of organ donation, to show support:
Philadelphia
- April 19– Cira Centre South
- April 12 and 19 – One Liberty Place
- April 12 and 19 – Two Liberty Place
- April 19 – BYN Mellon Center
- April 10-12 – PECO Crown Lights
Harrisburg
- April 13-16 – Market Street Bridge
- April 17-20 – Capitol Building
Hershey
- April 17-20 – Hershey Medical Center Crescent
*Photos from previous years are available here.
Gift of Life is joining Donate Life America in taking an online approach for April Donate Life Month observances. We encourage you to participate in National Donate Life Month digitally! Please join us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram as we honor donors, donor families and caregivers, recipients, registered donors, clinical teams, and those waiting for a second chance at life.
Blue & Green Day – April 17
Gift of Life also encourages everyone to participate in Blue & Green Day, Friday, April 17, to promote the importance of registering as an organ, eye and tissue donor. Currently, there are more than 113,000 men, women and children awaiting a life-saving transplant in the United States, about 5,000 are waiting locally. Take photos in your blue and green outfits and post them on social media with #BlueGreenDay and be sure to tag @donors1.
For more ways to get involved visit donors1.org.
Gift of Life Donor Program
Gift of Life Donor Program is the non-profit, federally-designated organ procurement organization, working with 128 acute care hospitals and 15 transplant centers to serve 11.2 million people in the eastern half of Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware. Thanks to its compassionate community, for the past 12 years, Gift of Life has coordinated the most life-saving organs for transplant in the United States. Its annual donation rate ranks among the highest in the world. Since 1974, Gift of Life has coordinated more than 50,000 life-saving organs for transplant, and approximately 1.5 million tissue transplants have resulted from the generosity of donors and their families. One organ donor can save the lives of up to eight people, and a tissue donor can improve the lives of more than 75 others. For more information or to register, visit donors1.org.