Ferris State University is wrapping up a “Gift of Life” campaign that closes on Feb. 29, encouraging as many students as possible to consider registering to become organ and tissue donors, potentially saving lives. 

“Career and Professional Success is participating in this year’s Gift of Life Campus Challenge and is encouraging you to sign up to become an organ and tissue donor,” said Okai Strickland, an assistant in Ferris State’s Career and Professional Success office. “The more people who sign up, the more lives get saved. If you are already a donor, that’s OK. You can still top by the table.”

Through the Gift of Life Michigan website, registrants can help Ferris State earn points in a statewide challenge while helping to heal and save lives. Each organ donor can save up to eight lives and each tissue donor can heal an average of 75 people.

As of early morning on Feb. 16, Ferris State ranked second statewide in the number of students registered, with 40, trailing Wayne State University’s 103.

Universities are striving to recruit new donors and sign up the most new donors as a percentage of their student population. Each of the eight donatable organs – two lungs, liver, pancreas, heart, two kidneys, and intestines – can add years to a patient’s life and enhance the quality of life. 

The Gift of Life Michigan Campus Challenge encourages friendly but competitive rivalries to continue while supporting a cause that can help save lives. For nearly 20 years, college students statewide have served to inspire 40,000-plus people to put their name on the Michigan Organ Donor Registry.  

Tissue donors for tendons, skin and bones can help restore mobility for combat veterans, burn victims and individuals with failing joints. Cornea transplants, the most common according to Gift of Life Michigan, an organization founded in 1971, can help restore vision in patients. 

Nationally, more than 100,000 people are waiting for an organ transplant. 

In addition to direct donor and tissue donor registration, the Gift of Life Campus Challenge also offers volunteer opportunities for Ferris State community members to ask students to sign up at campus tabling events. 

In 2023, Gift of Life Michigan, the state’s federally designated organ and tissue donor recovery program, set a record by helping 578 people become organ donors and 1,858 to give the gift of tissue. These efforts saved thousands of lives and healed tens of thousands more. 

Anyone interested in volunteering for the campaign can request more information by emailing the Career and Professional Success office or stopping by and visiting us in the David L. Eisler Center. 

For more information about Ferris State’s Gift of Life efforts, contact Strickland at (231) 591-2682 or by email at OkaiStrickland@ferris.edu. For more information about Gift of Life Michigan, contact Taneisha Carswell at tcampbell@golm.org. 

To register on the Michigan Organ Donor Registry visit golm.org/go/ferris.