WSU students compete for their fifth consecutive Gift of Life victory.
Wayne State University is participating in the Gift of Life Campus Challenge, hoping to take home its fifth consecutive win while saving lives.
The Gift of Life Campus Challenge is an annual competition between dozens of Michigan colleges. Each school comes together to add the most people to the organ donor registry. Since first entering the competition in 2012, WSU has taken home the trophy and remained undefeated.
After losing a WSU student, Rebecca Joy Butler, daughter of associate business professor Timothy Butler, who was waiting for an organ donation, the students entered the challenge for the first time in her memory. This has been a strong motivator for the WSU Gift of Life team.
Rebecca, 20, was diagnosed with a rare lung disease while pursuing a marketing degree at WSU. When she had learned that 100,000 other people were also awaiting organ donations, she was compelled to start a donor registry at WSU. She died in May 2011, still waiting for a lung. The following year, WSU entered the competition and won.
Rebecca’s sisters in Alpha Gamma Delta have been teaming up with WSU organizations across campus to hold information tables and sign new donors up. Each day the numbers climb higher, and while competitive nature of the campus challenge makes hearts race, with each new donor more lives are being saved. Win or lose, WSU is coming together to save lives.
“In 2015, the generosity of Michigan’s 285 organ donors resulted in more than 800 life-saving organ transplants. As of Jan. 1, 2016, more than 3,500 Michigan patients are waiting for a transplant,” according to a Wayne State news release.
The numbers alone are great, but the unity being shown across campus is awe-inspiring. What started out as one organization has evolved. The Greek life joined in the efforts, and then other WSU colleges hosted tables, classmates started sharing the link, and professors included information before lectures. WSU Warriors have come together year after year to support Rebecca and everyone else that has been waiting for too long.
The Gift of Life Campus Challenge concludes Feb. 24.
Signing up is an easy process and takes no more than five minutes. Register online atgiftoflifemichigan.org/go/wayne or in person at a registration event.
Originally posted on The Odyssey.
