Instead of the usual sea of orange and blue featured around campus, green will take its place to usher in National Donate Life Month. Tomorrow, green ribbons will be tied around the trees on the quad and handed out to raise public awareness of the critical need for organ, tissue, marrow and blood donation.

For the Student Nurses Association (SNA) at the University, National Donate Life Month is an opportunity to raise awareness for organ donation. The event also commemorates Lisa Corsini, a University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) nursing student who was struck by a car and killed on September 9, 2001.

Corsini, a foreign exchange student from Italy, had signed her donor card and expressed her wish to be an organ donor to her family. As a result, 33 organs, tissue and bones were transplanted and donated to four major organ recipients.

Corsini and other nursing students study at the University but are registered under the College of Nursing at UIC.

Laura Brems, SNA president and senior in UIC nursing, said most of the nursing students today never knew Lisa.

“But the college as a whole is still impacted by her story,” Brems said. “Just like the gift of donation, you leave a big impact on people’s lives, even if you don’t know them.”

The SNA, along with the Gift of Hope, a not-for-profit organ procurement organization, will sponsor the Gift of Hope Donate Life Quad Day/T-shirt Fundraiser tomorrow on the Main Quad outside the Illini Union Patio from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

A table will be set up with information on how to become an organ donor, and SNA members will distribute green ribbons and Hope wristbands. T-shirts with the Gift of Hope insignia will be sold for $2, and all proceeds will go to benefit Gift of Hope.

Sara Dalbey, SNA treasurer and senior in UIC nursing, said she hopes people wear the green ribbons.

“Green is the symbol of donation,” Dalbey said. “The green ribbons are just like the pink ones in recognition of Breast Cancer.”

Nancy Endress, clinical instructor for UIC’s College of Nursing, said the event is as much about raising money as it is about education.

“For Lisa’s parents, it is important to get the money, but they also cared more about using that money to educate others about the gift of donation,” Endress said.

Endress added that education is key because misconceptions about organ donation need to be addressed.

“People think that as long as you sign the back of your driver’s license or fill out a donor card, you are set,” she said. “But it is equally important to express your intentions to friends and family, so they know how to carry out your wishes.”

Lindsay Buie, SNA organ donation chair and senior in UIC nursing, said some people think if they sign a donor card, they will be given less care and attention from doctors.

“The truth is that the subject of transplanting your organs never even comes up until after a patient dies,” Buie said.

Endress also said people are uncomfortable with thinking about donating their organs because it is a reminder that one day they will die.

“But once they get past that initial discomfort and realize the impact they can have in saving someone’s life, they see it is well worth it,” she said.

Brems said the SNA is trying to target students because they are a generation who can pass along the information they learn to the future.

“Nurses have a responsibility to educate outside of the hospital,” Brems said. “We have a heart to see what other people need, it’s not just our job – it’s our life.”