AMA volunteers seek signatures for lives

Volunteers for AMA Saves Lives inform students about becoming organ donors. Photo courtesy of Kaitylin NardiBy Frances Parrish
parrishf@mytjnow.com

The Winthrop chapter of the American Marketing Association (AMA) caters to Winthrop’s clubs and organizations’ marketing needs like posters, space requests and even sidewalk chalk.  But last week, the organization catered to a different need.

On Tuesday, Feb. 14 and Thursday, Feb. 16, volunteers for the American Marketing Association(AMA) Saves Lives hosted a booth in which students could sign up to be an organ donor. AMA Saves Lives is a branch of the AMA which collaborates with Donate Life America to encourage organ donation.

Kaityln Nardi, president of the AMA at Winthrop, explained that AMA is a national organization and there are only two collegiate groups in South Carolina: one at Winthrop and one at the University of South Carolina.  

Nardi said that AMA Saves Lives holds a national competition for collegiate chapters to see which chapter can get the most organ donors.  The spring competition is held from Jan. 15 through March 23. 

“In the two hours combined that we were set up on Tuesday and Thursday, we got around 20 people to sign up to become organ donors,” Nardi said.  Nardi said that the competition is all online, and there is an electronic tally that is sent to Nationals. There are also Facebook competitions like social media posts and the tally is sent to Nationals electronically.  

“A big challenge in getting organ donors is that some people may have a skewed perspective on organ donating,” Nardi said. Nardi said that some people think that as soon as someone dies, that person’s organs are taken, but it is not true.  

The AMA donation program allows the donor to choose which organs to donate, and the medical personnel ask the family’s permission before surgically removing any organs from the donor.  

“I don’t think a lot people understand the concept of [organ donating]. So maybe with more education on the topic, they would be more willing to [donate],” Nardi said.  

Nardi said that the differences between the Department of Motor Vehicles and AMA Saves Lives are the charities and the choice.  “A lot of students don’t realize that when students get their driver’s license at fifteen and sixteen, you don’t really know a whole lot about [the process].  It’s good to bring it into the college atmosphere,” Nardi said.  

Students registered to be a donor for several reasons.  Kathryn Rigby a sophomore biology major explains that she doesn’t have a problem donating organs, but when she got her driver’s license, she was told that with the new policy, organs would be “ripped” out of the donor’s body as soon as they die.  

“It really freaked me out.  I like this process (AMA Website) a lot more,” Rigby said.  Richard Ryan, a junior sports management major, said that he had some family members that needed organ transplants and because of registered donors, they were able to receive them. “This is really personal to me,” Ryan said.  

According to AMA, last year more than 28,000 organ transplants were performed in the U.S.  A donor profile is created upon registering to be an organ donor, and the profile can be updated.  To learn more about becoming an organ donor, visit www.amasaveslives.com.