Lions Club members volunteered their time at the Servus Sports Centre on April 6 talking about the importance of organ donation in support of Green Shirt Day. From left: Ray Parr, upcoming Lion’s Club president, Shelley Tatro, fundraising committee co-chair, and Ray Tatro, 1st vice district governor. Supplied photo
Volunteers from the Lloydminster Lions Club were out and about over the weekend, telling folks about the most important donations they can plan to make. Organ donations.
“This year, April 6 is the sixth anniversary of that devastating tragedy that happened to the Humbolt Broncos. Sixteen young athletes lost their lives, and 13 had their lives changed forever,” said Lions Club 1st vice district governor Ray Tatro.
“On the following day, the family of Logan Boulet, who had heard Logan express his desire to be an organ donor just a month before this, had made the tough decision to pull the life support on Logan.”
Boulet’s parents, Toby and Bernadette, made the excruciating decision while recalling something important Logan had told them just a month before the tragic bus crash: if anything happened to him, he wanted to be an organ donor.
“And because Logan desired to donate, six people lived that otherwise wouldn’t have. They received organs from him, and two corneas as well,” said Tatro, adding that was the beginning of what is now known as the Logan Boulet effect.
When Boulet’s story got out there was a surge in organ donor registration all across the country, with about 150,000 extra people signing up.
“Now every year since on this anniversary it’s green shirt day. There’s approximately 100,000 extra people who get inspired to register,” said Tatro, adding it’s a very simple process.
Anyone interested in becoming a donor can visit greenshirtday.ca. It only takes a couple of minutes to register online, but there is one other thing a person should take the time to do as well.
“The other aspect is that you need to talk to your loved ones, because they can trump and change what happens to your body, so you need to let them know that your desire is to donate what you can to help somebody else improve their life” explained Tatro.
He and other Lion’s Club volunteers spent April 6 and 7 handing out green swag and talking to people about the importance of organ donation.
“We were very well received at the multiplex on Saturday and then at the Civic Centre on Sunday.
“There’s a lot of families that have been touched by someone that needed an organ and passed away while they were awaiting an organ, or they’ve donated. There’s some living donors of kidneys—that’s pretty common,” said Tatro.
There are approximately 4,800 people on the organ waitlist in Canada at any given time, and about 30 per cent of those will pass away before they get the organ they need.
According to Statistics Canada, less than 25 per cent of people are registered organ donors.
“We might have inspired some people to go home and sit down at their computer and register,” said Tatro.
“Green shirt day is … to get people talking. You know, if someone has a pin on their lapel somebody might ask what it’s about.”
For more information or to become a donor visit greenshirtday.ca.
