Miami, March 22, 2019 – Miami Dade College’s (MDC) National Historic Landmark Freedom Tower will go blue and green on Friday, April 12, in support of National Blue and Green Day to bring awareness to organ, eye and tissue donation as a way to save lives.
On National Donate Life Blue and Green Day, the public is encouraged to wear blue and green Donate Life colors, hold events, and collaborate with local restaurants, malls, media and community organizations to spread awareness. This observance offers hope to the 114,000 men, women, and children across the country waiting for a lifesaving transplant. In Florida, there are 5,304 individuals waiting for an organ transplant. On average, 22 people die each day due to lack of available organs – almost one person dying every hour. In addition, every 10 minutes a new name is added to the transplant waiting list.
Blue & Green Day is part of National Donate Life Month – a month long observance to focus national attention on organ, eye and, tissue donation and transplantation – to share the importance of registering your decision to be a donor, honor deceased and living donors, and celebrate the lifesaving and healing gift of transplantation. Registering is fast and easy at DonateLifeFlorida.org or in the Medical ID tab of your iPhone Health app and provides a way for people to make their wishes to be an organ and tissue donor known. It also provides legal, first-person authorization for organs to be donated, which removes the burden of decision-making from the family during an already difficult time.
Joining the registry can also be done when applying for a Florida state ID card of driver’s license. Donation information and resources can also be found on the registry’s website.
For more information or to register as a donor, visit www.donatelifeflorida.org or www.laora.org.
About Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency Life Alliance is one of the nation’s 58 federally designated organ recovery agencies certified and regulated by the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS). Life Alliance is a tax-exempt, nonprofit service organization that has the unique role of saving lives through organ donation and transplantation. Life Alliance facilitates the recovery of organs for clinical transplantation throughout six South Florida counties to be transplanted in transplant centers across the United States. Life Alliance is humbled to serve our donor heroes and their family, and by extension our community. Life Alliance works closely with the hospitals within its donation service area (DSA), and partners with the Department of Motor Vehicles and the state-authorized donor registry to save lives daily.
UM Media Contact: Ashley Accorto, Life Alliance Organ Recovery Agency, 954-790, 7604, a.accorto@miami.edu.