HRSA Organ Donation Challenge begins

WVU Medicine begins its participation in the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) Workplace Partnership for Life Hospital Organ Donation Challenge today (Oct. 1).

The Challenge is part of a HRSA campaign to raise donation awareness and celebrate giving the gift of life through organ donation.

To kick off the partnership, WVU Medicine and CORE representatives will be set up at the following times and locations to provide information and giveaway items, including a chance to win a WVU-themed gift basket:

• Tuesday, Oct. 2, 7-10 a.m., outside the Friends Gift Shop
• Wednesday, Oct. 3, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., outside Ruby Cafeteria
• Thursday, Oct. 4, 2-5 p.m., the waiting area of the shuttle stop at J.W. Ruby Memorial Hospital
• Saturday, Oct. 6, 9 a.m.-noon, outside Milan Puskar Stadium.

The campaign, which runs through April, 2019, will enhance WVU Medicine’s vision to bring a new solid organ transplant service to Morgantown, which will allow area residents the chance to get this critical care closer to home.

“Though these transplant services will not start until 2019, we can start educating now,” Albert L. Wright, Jr., president and CEO of the West Virginia University Health System, said. “I encourage our staff to stop and see our volunteers this week to learn how we can all make a difference through organ donation. We all have the ability to give the ultimate gift.”

Currently in the United States, 115,000 people – almost twice the number that would fill Milan Puskar Stadium -- are waiting for a lifesaving transplant. Every 10 minutes a patient in need is added to the national transplant waiting list, and every day 20 people die while awaiting a lifesaving organ transplant. 

To learn more about volunteering for HRSA Challenge, please contact Lindsay Gray at lindsay.gray@wvumedicine.org.