Community Foundation encouraging organ donor registration to benefit endowment fund
By Dale Woodard on April 7, 2021.
The Community Foundation of Lethbridge and Southwestern Alberta is laying down the challenge to southern Albertans.As Canada honours the third annual Green Shirt Day — a day honouring the victims and families of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash on April 6, 2018, while also spreading awareness about organ donation registration — the Community Foundation of Lethbridge and Southwestern Alberta will spend the month encouraging southern Albertans to have a chat with their families and fill out their organ donor card if they haven’t already done so.
Lethbridge’s Logan Boulet died from injuries sustained in the crash. Because his parents knew that Logan wished to be an organ donor and that he was inspired by his former coach Ric Suggitt, who was also an organ donor, they donated Logan’s organs.
Logan’s decision to become an organ donor saved six lives and inspired over 100,000 Canadians to become organ donors, creating the Logan Boulet Effect.
“We’re encouraging local folks in southwestern Alberta who haven’t already registered to register and let us know,” said Charleen Davidson, executive director for the Community Foundation of Lethbridge and Southwestern Alberta. “The Boulet family has established a fund (the Logan Boulet Endowment Fund) with us and we’re going to allocate money for every new registration that comes through into that fund. We’re just trying to spread the word and get people to register if they haven’t already or just to wear a green shirt just to keep the conversation going.”
Established in 2019 by Logan’s family — parents Toby and Bernadine and sister Mariko — the fund honours his life by continuing to give back to the charities and causes that mattered to him.
Anyone interested in supporting Logan’s fund may do so by contacting the Community Foundation at 403-328-5297 or online at https://cflsa.ca/donate/.
For every new confirmed organ donor registration from within the community of southwestern Alberta, from April 1 to April 30, the Community Foundation will contribute $500, to a maximum of $10,000, to the Logan Boulet Endowment Fund to show its support of Green Shirt Day.
For information on how to register, visit the Alberta Organ and Tissue Donation Registry at https://myhealth.alberta.ca/Pages/OTDRHome.aspx.
Once registered, people are asked to contact the Community Foundation for more information on how they can confirm their registration. Confidential information is not required, just confirmation.
Early in the initiative, Davidson said roughly four donors have signed up.
In the meantime, green shirts are encouraged to be worn throughout the day to help spread awareness about organ donation.
Official Green Shirt Day apparel can be purchased online at https://greenshirtday2021.go.customprintcenter.ca/. Follow @DWoodardHerald on Twitter 3
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