Philadelphia, PA – More than 3,000 transplant recipients, donor families, living donors and advocates took part in Dash From Home, a virtual version of Gift of Life Donor Program’s annual Donor Dash. Dash From Home brought awareness of organ and tissue donation to 37 states across the country as supporters walked or ran in their community, helping save lives with every step.
Participants raised nearly $400,000 to support the Transplant Foundation, the charitable foundation that supports programs and activities for donor and recipient families. These include Team Philadelphia’s participation at the Donate Life Transplant Games of America and Gift of Life Howie’s House
Anyone who missed Dash From Home but would like to donate can visit donordash.org. about 5,000 children and adults in Gift of Life Donor Program’s region are waiting for a life-saving organ transplant.
“We appreciate the tremendous outpouring of enthusiasm and support all the participants demonstrated for Dash From Home. Every registration, every step and every social media action our community has taken to support Dash From Home has helped our neighbors. By increasing awareness and education, we encourage more people to register as donors, leading to more organs available for life-saving transplants,” said Howard M. Nathan, Gift of Life Donor Program President and CEO. “I hope everyone will be inspired to take a few moments and register as an organ donor at donors1.org.”
Dash From Home included a Spirit Week of fun activities and contests like the Dash From Home Challenge. The challenge encouraged the community to participate in numerous programs and engage on social media throughout the entire month.
Community education about the importance of registering as an organ and tissue donor is a critical public health need. One organ donor can save eight lives. More than 100,000 patients are on the national transplant waitlist. Seventeen people die each day in the U.S. waiting for an organ.
The Dash From Home would not be possible without strong support from its sponsors.
Presenting Sponsor:
Community Tissue Services
Platinum Sponsors:
Gallagher and MTF Biologics
Diamond Sponsors:
Temple Health and Venture Jets
Bronze Sponsors:
Bridge to Life, CSL Behring, Jefferson, Penn Transplant Institute, Quick Courier
Supporting Sponsors:
CareDx, Inc., ChristianaCare Kidney Transplant Program, Cornerstone Institutional Investors, Inc., CTI Clinical Trial and Consulting, NORA – Nationwide Organ Recovery Transplant Alliance and Veloxis Pharmaceuticals
Supporting Sponsors:
Cozen O’Connor, Cohen, Placitella & Roth, P.C., CryoLife, LifeNet, Main Line Health, Organ Recovery Systems, Sanofi Genzyme, Sovereign Insurance Group and Waters Medical Systems, LLC.
Trivia Night Sponsor:
Lions Eye Bank of Delaware Valley
Celebration Video Waiting Room Sponsor:
Einstein Healthcare Network
To see pictures from the Dash From Home, go to:
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=Donors1&set=a.10159640183963598
If you’d like to use any photos, please attribute them to the Gift of Life Donor Program.
Dash From Home brought the spirit of Gift of Life’s largest annual event, the Donor Dash, to hundreds of neighborhoods. Since 1996, a quarter of a million people have attended Gift of Life’s in-person Donor Dash and its life-saving message has reached millions through media and community participation. Dash is the organization’s most important fundraiser..
Milestone Celebration in 2022
Gift of Life is planning its biggest event ever with the expectation that the 25th anniversary Donor Dash will return as an in-person event in front of the Philadelphia Art Museum in April 2022. We look forward to joining thousands of supporters to celebrate this milestone event and the life-saving power of organ and tissue donation.
Gift of Life Donor Program
Gift of Life Donor Program is the non-profit , federally designated organ procurement organization, working with 128 acute care hospitals and 15 transplant centers to serve 11.3 million people in the eastern half of Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware. Thanks to its compassionate community, for the past 13 years, Gift of Life has coordinated the most organ donors in the United States. Its annual donation rate, 55 organ donors-per-million-population, ranks among the highest in the world. Since 1974, Gift of Life has coordinated more than 52,500 life-saving organs for transplant, and approximately 1.75 million tissue transplants have resulted from the generosity of donors and their families. One organ donor can save the lives of up to eight people, and a tissue donor can improve the lives of about 100 others. For more information or to register, visit donors1.org.