UB students 'Save the Day' through organ donation

Classic comic book superheroes Batman and Superman joined forces in the Student Union on Wednesday, hoping others would be inspired to become heroes too.

Students in adjunct professor Karen Swierski's advanced public relations (COM 453) class wore costumes to show support for organ donation.

The event was held in the flag room of the Student Union and welcomed for anyone interested in organ and tissue donation. In conjunction with Upstate New York Transplant Services (UNYTS), students were able to sign organ and tissue donor cards. The class also provided information to those who were unsure about organ donation.

"We are an organ procurement organization and our coverage area is Western NY," said Jeffrey Loftus of UNYTS. "Our primary mission is to recover organs and tissue for transplantation."

This event is part of a semester-long awareness project.

"It is basically a campaign to bring awareness to organ donation," said John Robinson, a senior communication major.

According to Swierski, a little over one hundred donor cards had been filled out by the start of the day's event.

"Our goal for this year is 406 cards because last year we received 405. Every year we want to beat last year's total by one," Swierski said.

The past three years, UB students registered for advanced public relations have worked with UNYTS giving them a chance to run their own public relations (PR) campaign.

In previous semesters, the organ donation campaign devised by classes were made possible from a federal research grant by a UB communication professor Thomas Feeley, Ph.D. The grant received hopes to increase the number of donors among college students across the state.

This semester was made possible by funding from UNYTS. UNYTS decision to fund this year's project was due in part to past success of the organ donation campaign at UB.

"The PR students have been doing this for three or four years with us. They are doing a great job," Loftus said. "This year I really like the superhero theme."

The class provided food, cotton candy and raffles with prizes ranging from bags of Starbucks coffee to UB bookstore gift cards.

"I came for the free food and ended up learning about organ donation," said Amer Shamaa, a freshman biomedical sciences major.

Many attendees came to the event interested in organ donation and left with information to help make their decision easier.

"My son who turned 21 just did it. I am taking home information to share with my husband. I think this is important. It is only my body, not my soul," said Shelly Hain, a faculty member in the department of theatre and dance.

Currently in America, there are 95,000 people awaiting organ transplants according to the UNYTS. The class wanted the campaign to have a local connection, so they focused a portion of information distributed on deceased UB student John Cavagnaro, who died unexpectedly in January. Cavagnaro was a member of the UB hockey club and his family donated his corneas and heart valves to UNYTS.

The organ donation campaign will continue through the end of the semester and PR students plan to conduct classroom presentations to raise awareness throughout the month of April.