When you are thinking about making your New Years Resolution, please think about saying yes to organ, eye and tissue donation on your driver license or state ID if you haven’t already done so.

If you just got your driver license or state ID and didn’t say yes, please go to yesutah.org and sign up. It only takes a minute and it will be one of the easiest things to take off your to do list this next year!

Wow.  The last few days have been full of excitement!

We have the opportunity this year to honor Caroline Bryant on the Donate Life Float at the Rose Parade.  Caroline was about eight months pregnant in 1997, when she was involved in a tragic car accident.  Although medical staff were not able to save Caroline’s life, they were able to deliver her son, who is now a healthy 12 year old.  Caroline, who had previously discussed organ donation with her husband, became an organ donor.  Caroline will be honored in the form of a floragraph onthe Donate Life Float.  Her son Carter, and her liver recipient, Tyla, will  be riding on the float.

The floragraph, a word I think was created to describe the pictures of donors created with natural ingredients, is the major focal point of the float.  The decorating of Caroline’s floragraph began in California by the grammy winning R&B group, All-4-One.  They then brought the floragraph to Utah to give Caroline’s family a chance to complete the decorating.

The family gathered at Shriner’s Hospital for Children to listen as All-4-One sang to the patients and their families and then they were presented with the floragraph.  Caroline’s parents, Carter, and Tyla then completed the floragraph as several people watched and snapped pictures.  The family will also be going to California to participate in the Rose Parade.  There was a great article in the Deseret News and an equally great segment on Studio 5.

Karen Hannahs, our Family Support Liaison wrote this lovely entry about the origin of our Donor Quilt.  Thanks to Karen for contributing the following story:

In my work as a Family Support Liaison, I am constantly in awe of how so many donor families cope with unspeakable losses and somehow turn their losses into something positive through helping others. One such person is Judy Hunter.

In late May of 1995 Bill and Judy Hunter and their family were at a reception celebrating the marriage of one of their son Greg. As Judy tells it, “It was Greg and Dawn’s reception but Katy’s (their six-year-old daughter’s) party.” The event was held at a county courthouse with marbled floors and banisters. In spite of being told not to play near the banister, Katy and her brother and cousin took to the second floor, and Katy decided to “ride the banister” (like a play horse) so she could watch  everyone below. She was quickly seen by family members and told to get down. In the process of lifting her foot she fell backwards and toppled over the banister falling to the floor below as several family members rushed to catch her. No one was close enough to intercept her fall and as she fell she hit her head. She was rushed to the hospital but never regained consciousness.

Fast forward to the summer of 1996. Judy was attending the transplant games held in Washington DC when she first came upon the National Kidney Foundation (NKF) donor quilt. Judy says, “I had just been to the different monuments including the Vietnam Memorial and that was incredibly emotional. I had the same feeling when I saw all these quilt squares” (sewn together in memory of those that gave the gift of life). Judy met Maggie Coolican, the donor mom who was responsible for sewing all those squares together. She quickly felt a kinship with her. Maggie, too, had lost her six-year-old daughter, who coincidently was named Katie.

Judy thought to herself, “There are a lot of people who will never make it to a NKF event and will not have an opportunity to see this quilt. I can sew. Maybe I could do this.”  One year later in 1997 the first Intermountain Donor Services quilt was born with 10 squares. Judy says, “This is something I can do that touches others. I sit and will often cry as I do it. I learn about the stories behind the squares. It can sometimes be heartbreaking and a challenge, but they are all stitched with love.”

Judy and Bill had a large family before Katy died, including their daughter, Dianna who died of Osteosarcoma in 1990 at the age of fourteen. After Katy’s death they decided to adopt two children and along with their (total) 9 biological children, they welcomed Nathan and Sharyn into their loving home.

Putting the quilt together is absolutely a labor of love and one that has helped in the mourning process. But there are other things the Hunter’s do that help to keep Katy and Dianna’s spirit strong. The family’s strong faith and religion has helped them immeasurably and their belief that they will see their daughters again provides immense comfort. They talk freely about them in their home and the girl’s younger siblings have a real sense of who they were. Every year they decorate a tree in honor of Katy and Dianna for the Festival of Trees. You might even see the family at their grave site putting colorful windsocks on the girl’s headstones. Judy says, “I work in labor and delivery and normally experience a lot of happy moments, but when a child dies, I always talk to families about the importance of talking about their child and acknowledging the loss”.

Judy and Bill feel like the experiences they have had in the years following their daughter’s death have helped them continue on in spite of their heartache. “There is so much love out there, so much good. You learn that after you lose a child.” They also recognize that the (sometimes unbearable) hurt comes from the love they have for their daughters, “We hurt so much because we love so much.”

I had the wonderful opportunity to host our quarterly Volunteer Training Dinner a few weeks ago.  What a fantastic evening!  I truly enjoyed meeting several new volunteers and visiting with a few IDS “veterans”.  We had folks attend from all over the valley to learn about how to best communicate our message of the importance of donation.  We were even blessed with five visitors from Logan– I felt special!  We talked about what IDS is doing in the social marketing arena (Facebook, Twitter, etc. ) and went over several details relating to organ and tissue donation.

However, it wasn’t just the volunteers that were educated that night!  I even learned a thing or two, such as what is an appropriate beverage to serve to transplant recipients!   After several volunteers arrived, I excitedly told them I had brought my new favorite holiday drink to share with them, Pomegranate 7-UP.  Imagine my chagrin when several of them kindly told me that they can’t eat or drink pomegranate!  It interferes with their anti-rejection meds, as does grapefruit and a few other foods.  They were very lovely about it but it was a bit of a “Doh!” moment for me.  So, to any of you planning your holiday party menus, keep in mind the special dietary requirements of your transplant recipient friends!

If you are interested in volunteering with us, you don’t have to wait for our quarterly training to get started!  Click on the “Volunteers” tab on our homepage at www.yesutah.org and we’ll get you going!

When I first started working here, I wondered, where is this “registry” I’ve heard about?   Who runs it?  What does it look like?       Does it look like this?

Or  this???

Or this????      

So here is the inside scoop – When you say “Yes” to donation, your wishes are recorded in a database managed by Intermountain Donor Services (IDS) of Utah.    It was created to make sure that all those who want to donate can document their decision, and so it can be easily affirmed that a person wishes to be a donor.  Only a limited number of people have access to the registry database.  Personal information in the registry is not shared with any hospital, company, or government agency.  IDS is a nonprofit organization of about 50 people that handles everything from the actual organ and tissue recovery, to professional  and public education, to donor family support services.  There are other private foundations out there related to organ donation who may hold fundraisers and awareness events, but IDS is the only federally designated organization for Utah, and areas of Wyoming and Idaho.  We are also the Donate Life affiliate for this area.

When you call the YesUtah Donor Registry, you may get a recorded message because we don’t have a call center at all, or a back room full of people on the phone.  In fact, “we” look like this:

If you get our recorded message, be assured we’ll call you back, usually within a business day.   We love to answer questions, help people register to be organ, eye and tissue donors, or share a great story about one of the many miracles that happen around here every day!