National Events

January: National Volunteer Blood Donor Month
A time to highlight the importance of giving life through the donation of blood and to honor past and present donors and encourage new ones. The theme, Give Blood ..The Gift of Life, is as constant, as the need for blood.

February 14: National Donor Day
Focused on five points of life: organs, tissues, marrow, platelets, and blood. Many nonprofit health organizations sponsor blood and marrow drives and organ/tissue donor card signings across the Nation. Initiated by the Saturn Cooperation and its United Auto Worker partners. More about National Donor Day

April: National Donate Life Month
Organ procurement organizations, transplant centers, and other organizations sponsor special awareness events and donor recognition ceremonies to promote donation awareness. More about National Donate Life Month

July: National Donor Recognition Workshop & Ceremony (July 17-19, 2009)
Donors and their families from across the country are honored in the Nation's Capital by the Federal government and the transplant community for giving the Gift of Life. Includes Saturday workshops and a donor recognition ceremony on Sunday. More about Donor Recognition Workshop & Ceremony

July: U.S. Transplant Games — Alternating even-numbered years
Olympic-style athletic events for transplant recipients celebrate the life-enabling gifts given by organ and tissue donors. Organized by the National Kidney Foundation. Medals are awarded to recipient winners, and to living donors and donor family members at separate recognition ceremonies. The Transplant Games illustrate that transplantation works to extend and enhance life. More information is available at the National Kidney Foundation web site.

August 1: National Minority Donor Awareness Day
Intensive awareness campaign focuses on obstacles related to minorities and donation, promotes healthy living and disease prevention to decrease the need for transplantation and reaches out to all ethnic groups. Observances have included prayer breakfasts, health walks, and donor drives.

November: National Marrow Awareness Month
A special nationwide effort to recruit volunteer marrow, blood stem cell, and umbilical cord blood donors and to increase patient awareness of the option of unrelated transplantation. More about marrow donation.

November: Two Weekends Before Thanksgiving: National Donor Sabbath
Faith communities across the country focus on the critical need for organs, tissues, marrow, and blood, and their life-enhancing capabilities. Faith leaders participate in discussions of donation with their congregants, and faith communities sponsor donation awareness activities during this 3-day celebration of life. National Donor Sabbath 2008