YSU group joins organ donor drive

By Harold Gwin

The students have registered more than half of their goal of 8,169 organ donors.

YOUNGSTOWN — Jeremy Cuevas says it’s not easy to persuade people to sign an organ donor card.

That’s the toughest part of the effort to register 8,169 new organ donors in Mahoning and Trumbull counties by May 1, said the senior political science major at Youngstown State University.

Cuevas, a Youngstown native, is a member of the YSU chapter of the American Humanics Student Association which has taken on the task of securing organ donors locally.

The drive, organized by Donate Life Ohio, involves 13 Ohio college and universities in a “Do It Now!” donor registration campaign.

YSU’s participation was launched last fall by a marketing and research class taught by Dr. Jane Reid. Those students took the drive across campus and into the community and, when the class ended with the fall semester, Reid asked the American Humanics Student Association, which she advises, to take on the task this spring.

The association is made up of students who are preparing for careers working for nonprofit agencies, and Cuevas said about a dozen YSU students are actively involved in the donor registration effort.

Statistics show that most Ohioans think organ donation is a good idea, but getting them to make the decision to sign up isn’t always easy, Cuevas said.

“I think it’s very difficult,” he said, relating his own personal history with the process.

Cuevas said he initially feared that, should emergency and health care officials knew that he was a donor, they would be less inclined to save his life should he be seriously injured or ill.

That turned out to be a myth, he said, adding, “It’s almost the opposite.”

Extraordinary efforts are required to keep a potential donor’s organs functioning so that they are acceptable for transplant, he said.

Reid, director of the Center for Nonprofit Leadership and a YSU marketing professor, confirmed that the process can be a “tough sell.” People aren’t always receptive to talking about something that is a reminder of their own death, she said.

However, the need is great, according to Donate Life Ohio, which says there are about 3,000 Ohioans waiting for a life-saving organ transplant now and one Ohioan dies every other day waiting for that transplant.

Cuevas said the local drive has had some success. A total of 4,330 donors, or 53 percent of the goal, have been signed up. That includes 122 YSU students who signed up during an event in Kilcawley Center last week.

The students have again taken their effort into the community, staging a series of events at local restaurants and other venues.

Signing up is a simple process that takes less than five minutes, Cuevas said, explaining that the group usually takes laptop computers to the events so that people can sign up online right on the spot.

The group also has forms that people can take home and fill out at their leisure, he said.

The group has two registration drives scheduled for this month.

The first is at 7 p.m. April 18 during a Mahoning Valley Thunder football game at the Chevrolet Centre in downtown Youngstown.

The second will be from 8 to 10 a.m. April 19 during the Relay For Life Health Fair in the Andrews Student Recreation and Wellness Center on the YSU campus.

gwin@vindy.com