By Ashley Bradley/ne news editor
Students stood in lines between classes at the NE Campus Oktoberfest Oct. 7 to help save lives in Taylor Lawson’s name.
Lawson, a NE Campus student who died from a lighting strike in late August, was a registered organ donor who wanted to become an art teacher. Because of her story, NE Campus Kappa Delta Pi honor society and LifeGift teamed up to recruit students to become organ donors in Lawson’s name. The event was bombarded with more attendees than anticipated.
Other than students who signed up to become donors, CW33, CBS 11, FOX 4 and WFAA showed up to get the tragic story of the 19-year-old woman and her impact on the college.
The event ran 9 a.m.-2 p.m. By the end of the day, 45 students had registered.
“One person has the potential to save 80 lives,” said Ariana Montelongo, public relations coordinator for LifeGift.
Based on those numbers, the 45 students who signed up during the event could possibly save up to 3,600 lives.
“Nationwide, more than 103,000 people await organs donations,” Montelongo said. “10,000 alone are Texans.”
She said only about 40,000 Texans are registered organ donors while California has an estimated 5 million.
“If I needed an organ, I would hope that someone would do the same for me,” said NE Campus student Brandon Dacus, waiting to sign up to be an organ donor at the event. “The next time I went to the DPS I was going to sign up, but that wouldn’t have been until 2010.”
Kappa Delta Pi’s chapter president Aleshea Nobles was one of the recruiting officers for the event. She asked students passing by if they wanted to save lives by becoming an organ donor. If she received any hesitation, she told them Lawson’s story and urged them to follow in her footsteps.
“A lot of them signed up because Taylor was a previous TCC student,” Nobles said.
Among those registering was Lawson’s mom, Tina Lawson.
After finding out about the event from Lisa Self, faculty advisor of Kappa Delta Pi, on Facebook, Tina Lawson decided that because she was not already a
registered organ donor, she felt signing up at the event taking place in her daughter’s name was right.
“Hundreds of people may be saved because of this,” Tina Lawson said. “After my stepdad received a donated heart, he lived another 13 years.”
Self was particularly excited that Tina Lawson came. She was happy to get Lawson’s mother’s consent on what Kappa Delta Pi and LifeGift wanted to do.
“The mom showing up was the biggest surprise,” Self said. “That was huge for me.”
Although Tina Lawson has lost a big part of her life, she said that she is getting through it.
“My solace and comfort comes from God,” she said. “God has taken the pain.”
For more information about becoming an organ donor, visit LifeGift.org. To register to become an organ donor, visit www.donatelifetexas.org or contact Self at elizabeth.self@tccd.edu.
