UW Oshkosh’s chapter of Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) helped 90 students to become national organ donors as part of the club’s annual National Organ Donor Awareness Competition (NODAC) April 25.

“Our main goal is to encourage UWO students and community to sign up to be a national organ donor so that they can ‘share the beat,’” PRSSA president Jocelyn Nunez said. “We would love to increase the number of sign ups from last year and educate more students.”

The club organized a month-long campaign called “Share the Beat,” which aimed to raise awareness of the difference between state-level organ donation and national organ donation.

Nunez said they chose the campaign theme to connect two different ideas that benefit a wide array of people: music and organ donation.

“We chose ‘Share the Beat’ as it relates to a heartbeat, but also that a beat (music) is something that brings people together, just like signing up can do,” she said.

Throughout the month PRSSA rolled out their campaign, which included social media posts and a website to inform people about the benefits of becoming a national organ donor. 

Currently, an average of 17 people die each day while waiting for an organ transplant while 103,223 men, women and children are on an organ transplant waiting list, according to the Health Services and Resource Administration.

PRSSA aimed to lower these numbers by encouraging students to sign up as a national donor with free muffins and giveaway prizes, including local donations and a pickleball paddle from Relyon Athletics.

Nunez said she and her team set up in Sage to attract as many possible donors as possible.

“The competition allows for a one day event so we usually choose a location with a lot of traffic to host a table to educate students on national organ donation and urge them to sign up,” she said.

She said one of the main points of the “Share the Beat” campaign is to highlight the difference between being a state-level donor and a national donor.

“Many people do not know the difference between state and nation organ donation,” Nunez said.

To combat this, “Share the Beat” informed students that just because they sign up to be an organ donor on their drivers license does not mean they are a national donor.

To learn more about the campaign and/or become a national organ donor, visit uwoprssa.wixsite.com/mysite.