New York, NY, September 21, 2009: The New York Organ Donor Network today launched a public education campaign –“Sign Up to Save Lives.”
At the 12-week organ donor drive, which will reach out to residents, workers and visitors in parts of Upper Manhattan and Central Queens, will encourage individuals aged 18 and over to register on the New York State Donate Life Registry. In an ongoing campaign region-wide, the Donor Network hopes to gain one million new sign-ups by the end of 2012.
New York State is ranked as having one of the lowest organ donation and registration enrollment rates in the United States. Only 10 percent of eligible New Yorkers – 1.8 million – have signed up for the donor registry; many other states boast of enrollment rates between 60 to 70 percent. The result is that over the past five years, 3,390 people in New York State have needlessly died while waiting for organ transplants.
“The bottom line is that if you or a family member, friend, or colleague needs an organ transplant in New York, you have a much longer wait time than in most other states,” said Elaine Berg, president and CEO of the New York Organ Donor Network. “For instance, the average wait on the transplant list for kidneys is five to seven years in New York. There were only 251 deceased organ donors last year in the greater New York metropolitan area. That’s for about 7,500 patients who are in need of a transplant in our region.”
The Donor Network is partnering with hospitals, businesses, community and religious organizations in the target areas to distribute registry enrollment forms and inform the public. The grassroots community outreach by Donor Network volunteers—many of whom are donor family members and transplant recipients—will take the donor drive door-to-door in each of the pilot l neighborhoods encouraging New Yorkers over the age of 18 to sign up for the donor registry. People can also sign up to be donors at www.SaveLivesNewYork.org.
“In today’s economically challenging times, signing up to be a donor is a wonderful thing you can do that doesn’t cost anything. It doesn’t matter how old you are or what your racial or ethnic background may be, you can save lives,” Berg said.
The campaign will be bolstered by advertisements that emphasize how organ donation and transplantation saves lives and, just as important, keeps families intact. Paid advertising panels will appear at subway stations near the Columbia campus of NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, Jamaica Hospital Medical Center, and Elmhurst Hospital Center, the three hospitals that are partnering in the registry drive.
Advertising panels will also appear at the Long Island Rail Road train station in Jamaica; near Department of Motor Vehicles offices on 125th Street in Harlem and on 91st Avenue in Jamaica, and at JFK Airport. A double-decker bus will take the campaign on the road around the streets of Manhattan.
DOWNLOAD “SIGN UP TO SAVE LIVES” FLYER (PDF)
DOWNLOAD AN ORGAN DONATION FACT SHEET FOR THE “SIGN UP TO SAVE LIVES” CAMPAIGN (PDF)
Media Contact: Martin Woolf, mwoolf@nyodn.org or 646-291-4460.
ABOUT NEW YORK ORGAN DONOR NETWORK
Founded in 1978, the New York Organ Donor Network is the second largest of the nation’s 58 nonprofit, federally designated organ procurement organizations (OPOs). The Donor Network is responsible for the recovery of organs, eyes and tissues for transplantation, and public and professional education efforts in the greater New York metropolitan area. It serves a highly diverse population in Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, Staten Island, Long Island, Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Westchester and Pike County, PA. The Donor Network partners with 10 transplant centers, more than 100 hospitals, as well as several eye and tissue banks. It is fully accredited by the Association of Organ Procurement Organizations (AOPO), and it is a member of the United Network of Organ Sharing (UNOS).
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