Donate Life Month 2022 was Un-BEE-lievable!
05/17/2022This April, Donor Network of Arizona (DNA) celebrated Donate Life Month in honor of those who have given the gift of donation, and those whose lives have been forever changed by receiving the gift of life. Thanks to the hard work of our partner organizations, 450 new people joined in the DonateLifeAZ Registry in April, and nearly 500 people reaffirmed their decision!
What's the Buzz?
On April 8, two passionate champions of donation – living donor Bonnie Palomo and RN Robin Royer joined us for our What’s the Buzz? livestream. In a close competition, they answered trivia questions about donation and audience members chimed in with their guesses. Ultimately, Bonnie was crowned our “queen bee” as she showed her passion about how donation changes lives by getting the most questions correct!
Bonnie has good reason to know firsthand the lifechanging impact of donation. She realized just how powerful the gift of donation is when her father-in-law received a kidney in 2007. After witnessing how her father-in-law’s life changed after his transplant, it was no question that Bonnie would be tested when co-worker and friend Randi Ruiz learned that she was in renal failure. Bonnie immediately called the transplant center and learned the two friends were a match. Since then, Bonnie and Randi have remained extremely close and consider each other to be like family. Bonnie is a regional manager at the Arizona Motor Vehicle Department (ADOT MVD), which promotes organ donation every day.
“MVD touches so many lives every single day,” Bonnie says. “I am proud to be a part of an organization that supports and promotes organ donation and helps educate customers on the benefits and rewards of saving lives by being a registered organ donor.”
Thanking our community for making a difference!
We also want to thank and give a shout out to our amazing hospital and community partners who joined us in raising the Donate Life flag on April 18. Not only does this symbolize the support of our amazing partners, but also honors those who have shared their stories on how donation has touched them and their loved ones. If you’d like to purchase your own flag, visit Donate Life America’s online store. Watch how we honored donation heroes at DNA here.
Friendly Competition in the Spirit of Donation
National Blue and Green Day was on April 22, and we loved seeing people all over America show their spirit by decorating their homes and offices, baking yummy treats that highlighted their donation spirit, and posting on social media about how excited they were to celebrate Blue and Green Day! Here at DNA, our Community Involvement Committee split our staff into a blue team and a green team for a water drive competition. The blue team took home the victory of donating the most water bottles and monetary donations to benefit Phoenix Rescue Mission and Gospel Rescue Mission in Tucson. We collected over 3,500 water bottles in total this year, which will undoubtedly make a difference to those in need. Go blue team!
Honoring Donor Heroes
Lastly, we ended Donate Life Month with Donor Remembrance Day on April 30. It would be impossible to celebrate Donate Life Month without recognizing those who selflessly shared the gift of life. Every day, those anxiously awaiting the call that would change their lives forever receive that second chance thanks to donors and their families. We invited family and friends to create a page in honor of their loved one and share their story of how donation has touched their hearts. To view these pages, please visit www.LiveOnAZ.org/stories.
We are honored to be able to celebrate donation not only this past month, but every month here at DNA, and thank those who make donation possible!