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Remembering Donors at the U.S. Transplant Games

Anne Paschke

More than 2,000 people gathered at the Cathedral of St. Paul on Thursday, July 29, 2004 in Minneapolis, MN, for the Donor Recognition Ceremony held during the 2004 U.S. Transplant Games.

An invocation, poetry readings and a moving video entitled “Honoring Our Loved Ones” were just some of the ways donors were remembered and honored at the event. Also included in the ceremony were personal remarks from donor families and recipients; a Processional of the Donor Heart Memorial, which featured butterflies decorated by donor families; uplifting songs delivered by the angelic voices of a local girls’ choir; the reading of the Honor Roll of Donors, where all names of donors are announced; and the presentation of the Gift of Life medals, where all donor families receive a medal commemorating their family member’s Gift of Life.

The 2004 U.S. Transplant Games Medical Director, Francis L. Delmonico, MD, thanked donor families on behalf of the entire transplant community. “The goodness of what we are as a people,” he declared, “is revealed by our living donors and donor families here today.”