Gift of Life Donor Program, the region’s organ procurement organization, has announced the winners of the 2022 Students Save Lives College Challenge. Ten schools completed this year’s challenge, bringing awareness of the life-saving importance of organ donation to thousands of students and faculty through numerous virtual and live events and programs.
Students from Alvernia University won first prize for a campaign called “Pledge with the Pack.” Event Planning and Public Relations students worked together to register 30 people as organ donors. The campaign included multiple events, information tables and a robust social media campaign across Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Second prize winner Chestnut Hill College used survey research, social media and a kickoff event to register 42 people through their campaign, “Griffins for Life.” Susquehanna University took home third prize for a campaign called “Giving Grows: Plant the Seeds of Life.” Members of the school’s Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) chapter registered 45 people as organ donors.
Bloomsburg University registered 189 people to become organ donors, the most of any school involved in the challenge.
The annual competition invites organizations and clubs at universities and colleges across Gift of Life’s region to help increase organ donor awareness and registration among students, faculty, and staff on campus.
Each organization was tasked with holding a donor registration drive and special event while using social media to promote organ and tissue registration.
Ten Pennsylvania colleges participated in the challenge, registering 403 people as organ and tissue donors – those individuals have the potential to save more than 1,000 lives. The impact of an organ donor is tremendous. One organ donor can save the lives of up to eight people, and a tissue donor can improve the lives of more than 100 others.
