NOTE: This online event only applies to Illinois residents! Sorry, limited quantities.

What better way to celebrate Valentine’s Day than by giving back to others in need??!

Before diving into that decadent piece of chocolate, racing out to purchase that pretty bouquet of flowers or pick up that special Hallmark card, take a moment to help us out between Monday, Feb. 8 -  Friday, Feb. 12.

During this week, complete either item #1 or #2 below and we will mail you 3 “I Heart Organ Donor” stickers! A small gesture of thanks for your gratitude in helping us save the lives of the more than 105, 000 people nationwide that are waiting for a lifesaving transplant.

You can also join our “Give Your Heart Away For Valentine’s Day” Facebook event here!

1. If you haven’t already, REGISTER as an organ/tissue donor in Illinois today!

IMPORTANT: Be sure to select “Valentine’s Day” on the registration form.

2. If you are already a registered donor in Illinois, use our Tell-A-Friend tool to encourage four family members, coworkers, friends or others to also register!

IMPORTANT: Enter donatelifeillinois@gmail.com as the 5th friend address so that we know you participated.

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BONUS:
*Visit our Facebook page and to keep in touch with DLI and connect with our community of advocates. Then use the “suggest page to friends” button to invite your network to become fans!

*Feel free to also leave us a comment below with a note about why you support organ donation.

Questions? donatelifeillinois@gmail.com

Last Friday, I mentioned having heard some rumblings about donation mascots getting together for some special training in preparation for National Donate Life Month in April. Don’t get me wrong, we love our own Morgan D’ Organ but along with the other mascots, there is always room for improvement in encouraging more people to register.

The details are all coming together.

5 Mascots. 1 Month. 1 Mission…Register Organ Donors.

Get ready, this is going to be good. Starting March 1, there will be daily blog updates on www.MascotMission.com along with some video coverage of the mascots going through their training workshop.

You can sign up for the email updates on the site above (you’ll also receive a fancy Mascots On A Mission sticker for doing so!).  Be sure to also become a fan of the Mascots On A Mission Facebook page and you can also follow updates on Twitter from Mike Flaid himself as he prepares the mascots for what is sure to be a busy month of training in March and subsequent outreach in April.

Enjoy the video below and feel free to share away!

-Scott

…that this fine looking group of gentle giants may be doing some special “training” in preparation for April, National Donate Life Month.

(L to R) Donorsaur, Dottie Donor Dot, Heartman, Morgan D' Organ, Honey Bee

Stay tuned for details on Monday.

*Also, don’t forget to make sure you enter to win free Josh Turner tickets over here!

-Scott

This week, Donate Life Ohio launched a new registration initiative called the Green Chair Campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to increase donor registrations by 240,000 during 2010. According to the official press release:

“When empty, the DLO Green Chair can represent the loss of someone who never found a matching donor. Likewise, someone sitting in the chair can represent the new hope of a donor whose gift of life will be the second chance for someone in need. From personal accounts of donor families and recipients to the advocacy of those who’ve joined the donor registry, the Green Chair provides a platform for Ohioans to save lives.”

You can check out the full press release here and be sure to watch the campaign video below. Good luck Ohio!

-Scott

It’s Christmas year-round here at DLI camp! We’re always in a giving mood.

As part of our partnership with US99 for their Live Country Series, we’re giving away 40 free pairs of tickets to see Josh Turner at a private concert here in Chicago on February 11!

These tickets are not for sale, so here’s your chance to win!

Hop over to this contest page to learn what steps need to be taken to enter (21 and older only). Any Illinois resident can enter now through January 31 and we’ll notify the winners by February 2.

Spread the word to anyone you know that’s a country fan and good luck!

-Scott

Earlier this week, our 2010 Illinois Rose Parade Float Rider, Anne Gulotta, sent me a link to a nice photo slideshow that she put together documenting her trip to Pasadena. Anne’s son, J.R., created the song “Thank You” that accompanies the photos.

Enjoy and thanks Anne!

-Scott

Wow. We started off our little Facebook initiative with right around 6,460 fans.

We thought we had a good chance at hitting 7,000 fans over the course of 7 days. We were blown away when we  reached that goal before the official start day for the event.

We added a day to the event timeline and decided to shoot for reaching 8,000 fans.

A hop over to our page today shows that we now have 9,620 fans!

For us, these are not just fans, not just a number. These are individuals that are helping spread the word about organ/tissue donation and using social media as a channel to help tell their personal stories and support for the issue. If you haven’t in awhile, hop over to the page link above and scroll down the posts and comments on our wall. It’s amazing to see just how many people organ/tissue donation touches.

Every fan is a messenger and it’s through the power of social networks that we can all help to continue to spread the word and encourage others to register!

Thank you all for your support and expect to see a similar, bigger effort in the near future!

-Scott

Last week, Donate Life Illinois kicked off the first of  a year-long series of shows we’re supporting for US99’s “live country” concerts.

The show was a huge success as Phil Vassar rocked the stage and fans we’re encouraged to learn about organ/tissue donation and sign up in the state’s registry. Check out the photos below as well as this fun video of US99 show host Drew Walker prompting the crowd to show their green organ donation wristbands.

DLI Volunteers Manning the Registration Booth.

Phil Vassar Performs

Be sure to stay tuned to this page on our blog as we’ll be giving away more tickets starting January 25 to see Josh Turner at the next show.

Last, a quick status update on our 8 Days to 8,000 Facebook Fans event that is going on this week – we’re already at more than 8,100 fans and we’re just diving in on the third day! Response has been amazing, keep up the great work and passing around those “suggest to a friend” invites!

-Scott

Today was supposed to mark the kickoff of our 7 Days to 7,000 fans event where we were aiming to increase our fan base to 7k.

Little did we know what kind of amazing response we were going to get from everyone right away!

We’re ecstatic to announce that last night, we actually crossed the 7k mark. That’s right…before the event even officially started.

SO, to keep the momentum rolling, we’ve tacked on a day and increased our goal to 8k. Certainly a challenge for the week ahead but if early response is any indication, we’ve got a good shot at hitting our mark.

If you’re seeing this for the first time, hop over to our last post to find out how to participate.

Thank you all for being so supportive in helping spread the word on organ/tissue donation!

We’ll post an update on the results next week. Let’s do this!

-Scott

In the spirit of the New Year, we thought it would be fun to put out a little challenge to our fans.

Starting January 11 and lasting through January 17, we’ll be working to grow our current Facebook fan base of 6,300+  fans to 7,000 fans. It’s a lot, but we can do it!

Here’s what you can do to help us make it happen and don’t worry, we don’t mind if you start early

1. Visit www.facebook.com/DonateLifeIllinois and click the button.

2. On the left side of our page, under the DLI logo, you will see a link for “Suggest to Friends.” Click that link and invite all your friends to become a fan of our page!

3. Whoops, that’s it. We told you it was easy.

You can get a jump start on getting your network involved and letting others know you’ll be participating by joining the DLI  7 Days to 7,000 Fans event here. By joining the event, it will post your participation to your Facebook news feed and help spread the word as well!

Ready…set…let’s go!

-Scott