Students from the Hazelwood school district learn about organ and tissue donation at Mid-America Transplant.
Mid-America Transplant is excited to announce more students in the St. Louis area will learn about the importance of organ, eye and tissue donation via the Gift of Life Life Savers program. The Mid-America Transplant Foundation awarded a grant to Gift of Life, a Kansas City-based organization aimed at educating students about donation, to hire a part-time classroom educator for the St. Louis area.
“This is an exciting opportunity for Mid-America Transplant and Gift of Life to reach more students,” said Nicole Kellen, Director of Community Engagement at Mid-America Transplant. “We look forward to partnering with Gift of Life in educating students about this critical topic as we work to save even more lives through organ, eye and tissue donation.”
Pictured from left: Sara Danner, Mid-America Transplant Community Engagement Coordinator; Nicole Kellen, Mid-America Transplant Director of Community Engagement; India Caffey, Gift of Life Lifesavers Educator; Kim Harbur, Director of Education and Co-Founder of Gift of Life.
With the three-year grant, Gift of Life estimates it will be able to reach nearly 4,000 students with the lifesaving message of organ, eye and tissue donation. Mid-America Transplant’s education program currently reaches about 5,000 students annually in the region, with many touring the organization’s facility in St. Louis.
More than 30,000 students and their families at about 115 high schools in the greater Kansas City area receive presentations annually from Gift of Life. Over the past 20 years, Gift of Life has observed teenage registration rates double, exceeding 70 percent in some counties.
Life Savers Educator India Caffey, who will serve the St. Louis area, will begin contacting schools in October.