Centralight

Register today to become an organ and tissue donor If you don't have a red heart emblem on your Michigan driver's license or ID, you aren't registered in this state. Doing so takes less than a minute: Go to giftofl ifemichigan.org/go/cmu. If you don't live in Michigan, go to donatelife.net/register-now to join the registry in your state. • Many Central students know personally what it means to give the ultimate gift of life — and to receive it. Those students are channeling their passion into as much good as they can by helping add names to the Michigan Organ Donor Registry. Jesicalyn Stoddard, 20, of Madison Heights, will be a leader this winter in something called the Gift of Life Campus Challenge, the largest college-based organ donor drive in the nation. Students on campuses across the state will compete Jan. 15 to Feb. 26 for new donor registrations by hosting sign-up tables and educating their fellow students. "It's important because once we pass, it's the last thing we can do to help others," Stoddard says. She knows. Her father received a rare kidney and liver transplant in 2013 after his appendix burst, destroying those organs. "I never really knew how important donation could be until it happened to my family," Stoddard says. "It's the only reason he's here. If he didn't have a transplant, I wouldn't have a dad." In its 11-year history, the Campus Challenge has added more than 35,000 people to the Michigan Organ Donor Registry. Central has added 1,528. The best year in Mount Pleasant are passionate about organ and tissue donation was in 2005, when 463 people registered on campus. Stoddard has high hopes for the 2015 competition. She will get some help from Washington Township sophomore Derek Lucassian of the Sigma Pi fraternity. His cousin, grad student April Lucas of Wixom, died of a brain aneurysm in 2011 and saved four lives. "She's not gone – she's still living on," says 19-year-old Lucassian. "I met some of her recipients and it was extremely emotional." His fraternity has taken on organ donation as one of its philanthropic projects, along with suicide awareness and the Adopt a Family program. "I love getting people to sign up. It's just so important." CMU consistently ranks in the top half of the competition with other schools statewide, says Jennifer Tislerics of Gift of Life Michigan in Ann Arbor. "With more than 20,000 students on campus plus their family members and alumni, there is tremendous opportunity to inspire and motivate more people to register," she says. "Not only would Chippewas help save lives and lend hope to those who are waiting, but CMU has real potential to bring home the statewide trophy in 2015." • 283 Michigan residents were able to become organ donors last year; 914 people donated tissue CMU students One donor can save up to eight lives Members of CMU's Sigma Pi fraternity will register organ donors as they compete in Gift of Life Michigan's Campus Challenge. Personal perspectives on organ, tissue and eye donation Personal Personal Personal Personal Personal Personal Personal Personal perspectives perspectives perspectives perspectives perspectives perspectives perspectives perspectives perspectives perspectives perspectives perspectives perspectives perspectives perspectives perspectives perspectives perspectives perspectives perspectives on organ, tissue on organ, tissue on organ, tissue on organ, tissue on organ, tissue and eye donation on organ, tissue and eye donation on organ, tissue and eye donation on organ, tissue on organ, tissue and eye donation on organ, tissue on organ, tissue and eye donation on organ, tissue and eye donation on organ, tissue on organ, tissue on organ, tissue and eye donation on organ, tissue on organ, tissue and eye donation on organ, tissue and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation and eye donation

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