Members of the public are invited to join Bellin Health for a flag-raising ceremony to celebrate Donate Life Month, which is observed each April to honor organ donors and promote the importance of organ, tissue and eye donation.
Attendees are invited to gather in the Bellin Hospital lobby at 744 S. Webster Ave. at 9:45 a.m. for opening remarks and a special guest speaker before gathering around the flag pole at 10 a.m. The flag will be raised at precisely 10:08 a.m. to highlight the fact that one organ donor can save eight lives. After the flag is raised, participants will observe 1 minute and 14 seconds of silence to signify that more than 114,000 people nationwide are currently awaiting life-saving organ transplants, and thousands more could have their lives dramatically improved through tissue and eye donation.
Bellin Health Oconto Hospital, along with others statewide, will hold similar flag-raising ceremonies at the same time. Titled “Pause to Give Life,” the events are presented in conjunction with Donate Life Wisconsin.
The Green Bay event’s guest speaker will be Bette Briar-Tilot, a 42-year Bellin Health employee who lost her daughter (and fellow Bellin employee) Dianne Tilot to a blood clot issue in December. Bette and Dianne had discussed organ donation and their wishes many times; therefore, the family was able to follow through on Dianne’s desire to be an organ donor. Bette says she’s glad they had those conversations, because without them she wouldn’t have known whether to donate Dianne’s organs. Bette didn’t initially realize how many people one donor can help and she’s glad they made the decision they did.
“She’s still giving,” Bette said. “That was Dianne.”
The event will conclude with refreshments and a reception in the Bellin Hospital lobby. Registration is not required; however, members of the public are encouraged to RSVP to Kathryn Petersen at kathryn.petersen@bellin.org.
More than 85 Donate Life Wisconsin (DLW) member and partner hospital organizations will simultaneously host the statewide Donate Life Flag raising ceremony and moment of silence to promote the mission of organ, tissue and eye donation, and honor donors and their families.
DLW created the inaugural Pause to Give Life event as a new, statewide observance to take place annually on the first Monday morning of April to mark the start of National Donate Life Month.
You can register as an organ, tissue and eye donor at DonateLifeWisconsin.org or at a Wisconsin DMV Service Center.
Area event locations include:
Bellin Hospital, 744 S Webster Ave., Green Bay
ThedaCare Regional Medical Center-Appleton,1818 N Meade St.
Aurora Baycare Medical Center, 2845 Greenbrier Rd., Green Bay
HSHS St. Vincent Hospital, 835 S Van Buren St., Green Bay
HSHS St. Mary’s Hospital Medical Center, 1726 Shawano Ave., Green Bay
Ascension St. Elizabeth Hospital, 1506 S. Oneida Street, Appleton
ThedaCare Medical Center-Berlin, 225 Memorial Dr., Berlin
St. Agnes Hospital, 430 E Division St., Fond du Lac
Bay Area Medical Center, 310 Shore Dr., Marinette
ThedaCare Regional Medical Center – Neenah, 130 Second St.
Bellin Oconto, 820 Arbutus Ave.
HSHS St. Clare Memorial Hospital, 855 S. Main St., Oconto Falls
Aurora Medical Center Oshkosh, 855 N Westhaven Dr.
Ascension Mercy Oshkosh, 500 S. Oakwood Ave
Ripon Medical Center, 845 Parkside St.
Aurora Sheboygan Memorial, 2629 N. 7th Street, Sheboygan
HSHS St. Nicholas Hospital, 3100 Superior Avenue, Sheboygan
Door County Medical Center, 323 S. 18th Avenue, Sturgeon Bay
Waupun Memorial Hospital, 620 W. Brown St., Waupun
Aurora Medical Center Manitowoc County, 5000 Memorial Drive, Two Rivers
Wisconsin Organ, Tissue and Eye Donation Facts:
Anyone age 15 and half or older can register as a donor regardless of health, gender or ethnic or racial background.
Nearly 3 million, or almost 60 percent of those eligible, have said yes and registered as donors.
More than 800 organs were transplanted and more than 700 people received an organ transplant in 2017.
There were more than 160 living kidney and liver donors, nearly 250 deceased organ donors, nearly 1,000 tissue donors and nearly 1,200 eye donors in 2017.
