Donate Life Jays is campaigning for Live on Nebraska on Creighton’s campus to promote and spread awareness about organ donation. We created a pledge for people to become more educated and to spread that education to family and friends.
Donate Life America aims to share the stories of people that have had an organ donated to them and register more organ donors to decrease the number of individuals on the national transplant waiting list. Live on Nebraska is a local subsidiary of Donate Life America and shares their same goals. Donate Life Jays is an on-campus group formed for the Public Relations: Campaigns class that raises awareness about organ, eye, and tissue donation specifically within the Creighton community.
Each other group within the Public Relations: Campaigns class is also covering organ donation as part of a competition to present at the national level to the National Organ Donor Awareness Competition, or NODAC. The NODAC encourages student’s “chance to enhance their public relations skills,” as stated on the Public Relations Student Society of America. Winners of the NODAC also receive a cash prize.
They hold tabling events promoting registration by giving out registration cards, attracting conversation with the Creighton community with pins, pens, and candy.
“We talk with students and faculty as they come up to the table, informing them of what we do and spreading awareness about the benefits of organ and tissue registration and donation,” Autumn Scheer, social media manager, said.
The members of the Donate Life Jays group describe their main public relations strategies as social media outreach and partnering with the Creighton College of Arts and Sciences.
They post on social media three times per week with video content, upcoming events like National Donor Day, and information like the possibility of religious restrictions that may be relevant to those registering.
Donate Life Jays ran into a slight roadblock to getting the amount of people registered that they aimed to and had to shift strategies. “When going on campus, we discovered that many Creighton students were already registered to be donors, so our new focus became more education on what organ and tissue donation entails,” Cecilia Fuller, social media manager, said.
They are also utilizing the CCAS’s email outreach to gain a wider audience for their donation and registrations message.
For those looking for further involvement, Donate Life Jays has created a pledge for people to take stating that they will educate themselves further about organ and tissue donation, as well as spreading that knowledge to friends and family.