Hoping to educate people about organ donations, Alpha Lambda Delta/Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society is sponsoring Organ Awareness Day today in the Memorial Union.

Carrie Beyer, president of Alpha Lambda Delta, said they are sponsoring the program in hopes of increasing awareness for the need of organ donors.

Beyer said many people who sign up to be organ donors don’t inform family members of their decision. “Even if you sign up to be an organ donor and you don’t tell your family, they have the final say when you die to donate your organs,” she said. “A lot of people don’t know that.”

Throughout the day, there will be a booth set up near the Commons, to provide information about organ donation.

Three speakers will be featured at 7 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Union to discuss their own experiences with organ donation.

Tom Jorgenson, a sociology teacher at Ames High School, had a liver transplant in 1989. He will tell about his experience and his daughter, Julie Jorgenson, will also speak.

Dr. Jon Fleming, an ISU graduate, will also speak on organ donor awareness.

There are display cases with organ donor information located in the Union and Parks Library.

Suzy Craig, membership co-chair of Alpha Lambda Delta/Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society, said if the need for donations is great today, it will be even greater in the future. “We hope people will sign a donor organ card after attending our program,” Craig said.

Craig said this is the first year Alpha Lambda Delta/Phi Eta Sigma has sponsored Donor Awareness Day.

“Donations are a gift to the living and a comfort to the grieving, and what better gift is there to give than the gift of life,” Craig said.

In related news

This Saturday at the Des Moines Kaleidoscope Hub, Alpha Lambda Delta/ Phi Eta Sigma Honor Society will participate in “Walking for the Cure.”

“Walking for the Cure” is for the fight against childhood diabetes, sponsored by the Juvenile Diabetes Foundation. Craig said if people donate $1, they will receive a paper foot with their name on it to show their support of the foundation.