"Life Takes Guts," an event organized by UNC-Chapel Hill students, promoted organ and tissue donation as musical groups like The Scooby Duo belted popular songs to lure passers-by.
The Kenan-Flagler Business School, Carolina Donor Services and the APPLES Service-Learning Program hosted the program and invited Chris Klug, who won the bronze medal in the Salt Lake City Olympics for snowboarding in the parallel giant slalom, to speak. Klug was diagnosed with a potentially fatal liver disease about nine years ago.
He was competing on the World Cup snowboarding circuit when the disease was discovered, but he fully recovered after receiving a transplant in July 2000. "I was very lucky," he said. "Organ donation saves lives, and I'm living proof of that."
The organizers of "Life Takes Guts" said they held the event to convince people to sign donor cards and to dispel any misconceptions people have about organ and tissue donation.
To be officially considered organ donors, people must have documentation other than a driver's license -- such as a donor card signed by two witnesses -- and they must notify their families of the decision, organizers said.
"A lot of people don't realize a driver's license isn't a legal document," said Laura Gallo, a senior business major and volunteer at the event. "There's too many myths out there, and that's part of what we're trying to do today."
Almost 80,000 people in the country are on a waiting list for organ and tissue transplants, and Klug said his story might offer hope to people waiting. "Hopefully I'm an inspiration to those who are on that waiting list," Klug said in an interview before the event. "I tell them not to give up and to hang in there, and they can make it back stronger than ever. There are no limitations for liver transplant patients."
At the end of the day, event organizer Michael Dyer said he thought more people signed donor cards Wednesday than when the event was held last year at N.C. State University and N.C. Central University, as well as at UNC-CH.
Dyer attributed the higher numbers to Klug's presence and to the student groups that supported the event. Women's basketball coach Sylvia Hatchell and women's softball assistant coach Beverly Smith also attended the event and acted as witnesses for students' donor cards.
