Every April, the Kentucky Circuit Court Clerks’ Trust for Life along with the entire United States celebrate National Donate Life Month. This a time to focus national and local attention on every individual’s power to make life possible by registering his or her decision to be an organ and tissue donor and learning more about living donation.
The Kentucky Circuit Court Clerks’ Trust For Life partners with Donate Life America each year during National Donate Life Month 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 art was inspired by the image of a rainbow and Maya Angelou’s quote, “Be a rainbow in someone else’s cloud.” *
Donate Life America chose this year’s artwork because often following a storm, the presence of a rainbow provides optimism and motivates us to endure through dark times. Organ 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 people of all backgrounds and experiences, according to Shelley Snyder, executive director at the Kentucky Circuit Court Clerks’ Trust For Life. She said she greatly appreciates the work done by the Kentucky Circuit Court Clerks and their employees in asking customers about joining the Kentucky Donor Registry and about donating $1 toward this lifesaving mission.
“Through life’s rainy days and toughest challenges, we need others to lift us up and give us light. If someone I loved needed a transplant, we would all pray for someone else to help my loved one,” said Adair Circuit Court Clerk, Dennis Loy. “By registering to be a donor and considering living donation, you can change one ray of light into a spectrum of healing and compassion.”
Loy said that one of the ways this month will be celebrated is with 51 billboards across Kentucky and adjoining counties. “We are thrilled to be able to honor donor families and feature recipients on our billboards during National Donate Life Month 2018,” Loy said. “From Kendall in Carroll County, who had a heart transplant as a baby and is now in college to Terrie, a donor mom whose son Sheldon saved several lives, the faces on the billboards embody hope.”
Everyone can register the decision to be donor by saying “YES” when you renew your driver’s license at your Circuit Clerk’s office. You can register online at RegisterMe.org (or in the Medical ID tab of the iPhone Health app). To learn more about being a living donor, visit DonateLife.net.
Currently, 56% of U.S. adults, and 55% of Kentucky, have registered their decision to make LIFE possible and be organ and tissue donors if that is possible when they die. Yet the number of people in need of transplants continues to outpace the number of organs donated. Currently, 114,973 people are waiting for a transplant and a second chance at life, over 1000 kids and adults in Kentucky are waiting. 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.
“Everyone has the opportunity to be a rainbow in other people’s dark clouds through the gift of organ and tissue donation,” says LAST.
*Maya Angelou™ is a trademark licensed by Caged Bird Legacy, LLC
**Data from the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) as of March 29, 2018.
