LETHBRIDGE, Alberta, April 07, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The second annual Green Shirt Day is today. The day encourages people across Canada to register as organ donors and tell their family their wishes. There is widespread enthusiasm from the organ transplant community, schools and workplaces to take part in Green Shirt Day, whose activities have moved on-line.
Using the hashtags #GreenShirtDay and #LoganBouletEffect, Canadians are posting videos and photos that share why organ donation matters to them, why they are registered organ donors and that they’ve told their family their wishes. Examples include:
- Leonard Hodder is a living liver donor in the GTA who gave part of his liver to a stranger. He shares his thoughts on organ donation in this tweet.
- Abbie in Ottawa is encouraging organ donation with this video.
“I encourage people to go on whichever social media they like to use, be it Twitter, Instagram, Facebook or Tik-Tok, and post that you’re a registered organ donor,” says Toby Boulet. “Put on a green shirt then take a picture or make a video. Just tell everyone you’re registered to be an organ donor, have told your family your wishes and be inspired.”
It is estimated that more than 100,000 Canadians registered as organ donors in the weeks following the Humboldt crash in 2018 that took Logan Boulet’s life and led to him being an organ donor, known as the Logan Boulet Effect. The next year, Green Shirt Day 2019 inspired another hundred thousand or more to take action.
Logan’s legacy reminds us how important it is for Canadians to talk with their family about their organ donation wishes. It’s suggested that for every person who registers their intent to donate, they speak with an average of four others about organ donation. That means that 100,000 new registrants equals approximately 400,000 conversations.
Get more background, key statistics, organ donation terminology (e.g. use “retrieve organs” not “harvest organs”), and digital assets from our media kit.
This year, we are pleased to introduce toolkits to support participation from schools, businesses, teams, clubs and organizations.
- Information package for school participation
- Information package for businesses, teams, clubs and organizations
About Canadian Transplant Association Green Shirt Day
The Canada-wide Green Shirt Day was created to remember the victims and families of the tragic Humboldt Broncos bus crash in Saskatchewan in 2018. And, to continue Logan Boulet’s legacy by inspiring Canadians to register as organ donors and to talk to their families about their wishes.
On April 7, learning that he would not recover, Bernadine and Toby Boulet offered to donate their son, Logan Boulet’s, organs. They did so because Logan had registered as an organ donor and had spoken to his parents about his wishes. His generous final act inspired more than 100,000 donor registrations across Canada shortly thereafter, which became known as the Logan Boulet Effect.
Media contacts:
Brenda Brown
President
Canadian Transplant Association
604-807-8282
bbrown@txworks.ca
Canadian Blood Services
1-877-709-7773
media@blood.ca
Renee Horton
renee.horton@blood.ca
902-401-7878
Paul St-Germain
National Communications Manager
The Kidney Foundation of Canada
514-369-4806 or 1-800-361-7494 ext. 240
paul.stgermain@kidney.ca
Toby Boulet
1-403-331-0823, tobyboulet@shaw.ca