National Donor Events
National Eye Donor Month
Join the Heartland Lions Eye Banks in celebrating National Eye Donor Month (NEDM) in March 2012! This special time is set aside to honor tissue donors, donor families and cornea recipients and to educate others about becoming an eye donor.
Each year, approximately 42,000 Americans need a cornea transplant. By pledging to become an eye donor, you can help give vision and the "gift of sight" to others after you are gone. Becoming a donor is as simple as saying yes to donation when obtaining or renewing your driver's license or adding your name to your state's organ donor registry.
View the 2012 NEDM press release, fact sheet and PSAs.
National Donate Life Month
While the eye banking community celebrates National Eye Donor Month in March, the entire month of April is celebrated by organ, tissue and eye banks as National Donate Life Month (NDLM). Formerly known as National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week, the week-long observance was expanded to a month-long event in 2003.
During National Donate Life Month, the Eye Bank honors donors, donor families and cornea recipients at local events in collaboration with other organ procurement agencies. To see a listing of our National Donate Life Month events in your community, please visit our event calendar.
National Donor Sabbath
Each year, the eye, organ and tissue banking communities observe National Donor Sabbath two weekends before Thanksgiving.
During this interfaith celebration of life, faith leaders who choose to participate in discussions about donation encourage members of their congregation to bcome eye, organ and tissue donors in order to share the gifts of sight and life with others. The goal of the weekend is to get American families to think about donation and to understand the importance of talking as a family about the decision to donate.
What can you do to celebrate National Donor Sabbath and get your home congregation involved in spreading the word about donation?
- Attend a National Donor Sabbath event in your area.
- Send a letter or email to the leadership at your place of worship telling them about National Donor Sabbath and explain how you'd like the congregation to observe the celebration.
- Offer to speak or arrange for a speaker at your service, youth class or adult ministry group.
- Arrange to set up an informational table at your place of worship and hold a donor card drive to encourage individuals to become donors.
- Organize a candle lighting ceremony to commemorate donors, donor families and recipients.
- Host a donor awareness workship, prayer breakfast or health fair with information about donation and presentations by donor families and recipients.
The Eye Bank is a great resource for you, should you choose to implement any of these ideas! For more information or to gain access to educational materials, please contact us at 1-800-238-1982 or info@hleb.org.
