Donate Life NC does a wonderful job of crafting Donate Life messages that can be shared across the state to help in our joint goal of inspiring more North Carolinians to register. There are plenty of opportunities to raise donation awareness in the month of February including National Donor Day on February 14th (#GotHeart?).
These messages can be shared by an individual or both internally and externally by an organization. Internal suggestions include: electronic message boards in hospitals and clinics, employee intranets and email messages. Externally, share these via social media — and be sure you are following HonorBridge on Facebook and Donate Life NC on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest.
Messages to Share
February is Black History Month, another important opportunity to raise awareness about the need to register more donors in the African-American community. Some quick NC facts:
- There are 3,365 North Carolinians on the transplant waiting list as of 1/28/14. Of those, 1686 are Black – that’s 50% of all those on the waiting list.
- There are 2,903 North Carolinians waiting for a kidney transplant — and 1,603 of them are Black (55%)
- While 50.2% of all license and ID card holders are registered as donors in North Carolina, only 33.8% of African-Americans driver’s license and ID card holders are registered.
February 7 –
The American Heart Association is sponsoring National Wear Red Day for the 11th year to raise awareness about the #1 killer of women – heart disease. Encourage staff, patients and supporters to wear their best red outfits to raise awareness.
February 14 –
Today is not only Valentine’s Day but most importantly, National Donor Day! Donate Life NC will be launching a campaign from February 1 – 14 with the hashtag #GotHeart? Their vision is to create a moment over those 14 days where people talk with their loved ones about the importance of organ, eye and tissue donation. Please be on the look out for their images and posts on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and more – and share them widely! Use the hashtag #GotHeart? on your organization’s posts as well. National Donor Day recognizes those who have given the gifts of organ, tissue, eye, blood, bone marrow, and umbilical cord donation, so they also encourage you to share information throughout that week about ways to donate through Donate Life NC, the American Red Cross, Be the Match and more. If you do encourage people to register as organ, eye and tissue donors, we ask you to please use the following link: Register as a Donor.
February 28 –
Rare Disease Day [#RareDisease]: This day is to raise awareness amongst the general public and decision-makers about rare diseases and their impact on patients’ lives. More information as well as specific outreach tools can be found at: https://www.rarediseaseday.org.
Ongoing –
Please continue to raise awareness for the Donate Life License Plate available to order from the NCDMV.
Coming Up
- March is National Eye Donor Awareness Month. We’ll be featuring stories about the gift of sight. We will also be getting ready for National Donate Life Month in April and will be sharing dates, events and activities, such as Donate Life Blue and Green Day on April 11.
