Thank you for posting this Sayward! It means a lot to our family that you took time out of your life and blog to inform people about their mission!

I’ve been following Ken & Jen’s adventure before it even started. I’m planning on riding with them when they get to Utah in a few months. They inspired me to become an organ donor. I even had a dog tag made that says “Recycle Me”. No burial or cremation for me. Take what you need and donate the rest to medical science. Why waste the money for a fancy casket or an urn? When I’m dead and gone, use my body parts to help others instead of chucking me in a hole!

Yeah Sayward, I am the niece! I don’t think you are so much late as Jen and I are blasting this monthly mission all over the Internets!

I am going to register right now. And Brian, I love the ‘recycle me’ thing!
Sayward, I pray motherhood is treating you well. It sure can be rocky there at the beginning.

I had the opportunity to meet Ken and Jen when they rode through central Virginia. They are amazing people! Thanks for sharing their story and encouraging your readers to register to donate.

I’m Jen’s mom. We’ve always been on the organ donor list but now we have organ donor plates on our truck and organ donor flags on our bikes. We have recently signed up with biogift.org to donate our entire bodies.

That was easy. There is nothing “mini” about that. Thanks Sayward.

I got the “Recycle me” idea from Jen! My dog tag also has “www.donatelife.net” on it.

What a tragically beautiful story! It’s so sad and touching… I don’t know whether to smile or cry.

I have been registered as a donor for as long as I can remember. Our bodies are just vessels during our time here and if we can make someone else’s vessel more liveable when we’re done…Why not?? There are so many reasons to donate and none – that I know of – NOT to donate.

Nice to see you on here momma-chica!

This is a fabulous cause! If I may, I would also like to provide a link to the bone marrow donor registry. Being a bone marrow donor is a little different in that you can do it while you are alive so it takes a different kind of commitment but, like being an organ donor, it doesn’t take much!
FAQ section is here: http://www.marrow.org/JOIN/FAQs_about_Joining_the_Registry/index.html

Done.
The most important determinant in organ donation is whether it’s an opt-out or opt-in.

http://www.squidoo.com/OptOutOrganDonation

http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_090312

Of course those with any objection should be allowed to dispose of their most personal property, their bodies, however they see fit, but the default should not be to bury or burn these critical and irreplaceable resources.

I hope we all opt IN, but we shouldn’t have to.

Such a cool monthly mission Sayward! :D I was already a donor but I did post the site to my facebook. It was interesting to see some of the responses. Some people were already donors but most people seemed to make fun saying, “Oh I don’t think they want *my* liver.” or “My lungs are too charred to be a donor.” I mean, really? Come on people! First of all, I don’t think this is a subject to be taken lightly. So making fun of it irritates me. Second of all, there’s more to the human body than those *damaged* organs. Third, let me tell you a little story: I had a close friend. Her family and my family are basically attached at the hip. So she was basically like a sister to me. In the last 10 years she started going downhill, and fast. Tons of smoking, drinking and numerous other drugs. Prostitution somehow came into the mix. It was hard on both of our families to watch her do this to herself. Unfortunately, our worst fears came true when she got drunk at noon one day and decided to go get more booze. She didn’t put on her seatbelt and hit another car head on. The other driver was fine but she, of course, was not. She lived for a few days after that but her brain was just too damaged. The only positive thing that came out of this whole ordeal was that she donated all of her organs saving lives and enhancing others. The cool part….her lungs were smokers lungs, her liver was almost to the point of cirrhosis, and her eye balls were cut up from the accident, but they took them anyway! The hospital took them ALL and transplanted them into people that needed help. So it doesn’t matter if you think your lungs or liver are damaged. They just might take them anyway.
Why don’t we just leave that decision up to them? Thanks!

P.S. My friend’s family got a letter a year later telling them where all their daughter’s organs went. Her lungs went to a man who had lung cancer. Her heart went to a 14 year old girl with a bad heart. Her eyes went to a blind woman who can now SEE!!! Her liver went to a young man that was in a car accident and had his liver damaged. There’s a couple more stories too. Unfortunately I don’t remember where the pancreas and kidneys went. You get the picture though. :D

Recycling is my middle name…..please sign up and recycle yourself. Hee hee.

Or maybe at this point, I want to third it.:)

I made sure to tell my family about my decision to be a donor because a donor rep. told me that it’s ultimately up to your family even if you’ve signed up to donate. Being vegan increases our donateable parts, don’t you think? I think processing fast food meats takes a big toll on the organs. I don’t have any facts about it, so maybe it’s just a nice, wishful thought.

That is wonderful! Thankfully in Ohio it’s as simple as adding it when you get your license. So I’ve been once since I got my permit at 15 and 1/2.

Thanks! I wasn’t really intending on writing that much. I just wanted to make a small little point but it turned into a freaking novel. I guess I was just venting. Heheh. Thanks for readin’. :D

Just found your site late in the game through Jen ~ and I must say ~ I love it.

I’m a proud organ donor and can’t see one reason why anyone would not make the same choice. Kudos to people who spread good ideas like this! <3

:-) xxo Eva