Community Partnerships
Click here to view our full page ad thanking our Donate Life Partners in this year's Kids Day Buffalo News (pdf)!
Upstate New York Transplant Services thanks its Donate Life Community Partners! Upstate New York Transplant Services also thanks the Kaleida Health Multi-Organ Transplant Center for generously underwriting the advetisement.
Featured Community Partner...The Schools of the Donate Life Program...
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The Donate Life Community Partner Program is designed to boost awareness and action with regard to organ, eye, tissue and blood donation throughout Western New York. Whether a large or small business, high school or university, community group or public forum, Upstate New York Transplant Services Donate Life Partners are enthusiastic and supportive of the Gift of Life.
The best thing about the Donate Life Community Partner Program is its adaptability. We determine the initiatives of the program based on your business or group and what you specifically would like to accomplish with regard to organ, eye, tissue and blood donation. For example, to date Donate Life Community Partners have held dress-down days to raise funds for our education initiatives, placed articles and Organ and Tissue Donor Registration forms in payroll envelopes and newsletters, and held blood drives.
The point is the choice is yours, and we welcome your energy and ingenuity regarding how best we can reach your group – and how best we can educate and encourage your group to act with regard to organ, eye, tissue and blood donation.
We know you may think you do not have the time.
But remember, one organ and tissue donor can save or enhance the lives of up to fifty people, and with less than an hour of your time, you can give blood to Upstate New York Transplant Services and help local patients in local hospitals.
Donate Life Community Partners are about the continuing effort to do more for those in need of a life-saving gift. That effort starts with those closest – and supporters of the Gift of Life reaching out to their contacts throughout the community.
To learn more about becoming a Donate Life Community Partner, please do not hesitate to contact Amanda Farrell at 716.566.3925 or afarrell@unyts.org.
Donate Life Community Partners...
Upstate New York Transplant Services salutes the students of the Donate Life Program at the 2008 Showcase.
Buffalo, NY – Upstate New York Transplant Services honored 19 area high schools this past Wednesday for their participation in the organization’s Donate Life Program. Now in its fourth year, the program is designed to further organ and tissue donation and awareness among high school students, peers and parents through student-led public relations campaigns.
“The Donate Life Program carries the immediate goal of educating area youth and those they are close to on the importance of organ and tissue donation to ensure strong knowledge and rates of donor enrollment for generations to come,” said Mark J. Simon, President and CEO of Upstate New York Transplant Services. “Equally important, this program stresses public speaking and presentation skill – abilities that are both transferable and necessary to any path these students may choose,” Simon concluded. 
The Donate Life Program and Upstate New York Transplant Services partners with Dale Carnegie of Western New York for formal public relations training for students involved with the program. No other school-based program of any procurement organization in the country offers such formal training.
“Few things we take the time to do in life could be as important as becoming a registered organ and tissue donor and informing our loved-ones about it,” said Michael Cleveland Hill, Director of Education at Upstate New York Transplant Services. “This fact makes the subject matter of the program inherently important,” Hill continued, “however the public relations training – a skill often not stressed at this level – is a major reason why this program makes sense for so many schools and will continue to expand throughout Western New York.”
This year not only saw the addition of four area high schools to the program from the year prior but the added option for the Donate Life Clubs at the institutions to promote Upstate New York Transplant Services blood drives at their schools.
“This program was founded on increasing organ and tissue donation awareness and registration among youth and their loved-ones,” Hill continued. “However when considering furthering the Gift of Life, blood donation is such a natural fit and our organization and the Donate Life Program will more than likely continue to evolve to reflect this expanded mission.”
Certificates were awarded to the high schools of the program that hosted blood drives with Upstate New York Transplant Services. Special certificates of achievement were presented to Depew High School, Mount Mercy Academy and Niagara Catholic for achieving the highest rates of turnout among eligible students (Juniors and Seniors) for the drives. Together, and based on how blood donations are utilized, the schools of the Donate Life Program helped save the lives 2,775 patients in Western New York hospitals.
Some promotion for the blood drives at the schools rested with the Donate Life Group at the schools where others chose to focus on organ and tissue awareness. “This year’s campaigns were clever, innovative and unique,” Hill continued.” Their beauty is that with only necessary assistance from the advisor, these campaigns differ school to school, and are student-generated and student-led. I expect we will continue to see creative campaigns for years to come, and we are happy to be a part,” Hill concluded.
This year’s participating Donate Life Schools: Amherst Central High School, Buffalo Academy of the Sacred Heart, Canisius High School, City Honors High School, Clarence Sr. High School, Depew High School, Grand Island Sr. High School, Hamburg High School, JFK High School, Kenmore West High School, Lockport High School, Mt. Mercy Academy, Mount St. Mary’s Academy, Niagara Catholic High School, Nichols School, St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute, St. Mary’s High School, Starpoint High School, Williamsville South High School