MCHS students Kortney Poe, Sydney Lilley and Emily Greenwell are working to raise organ donation awareness in the community. The three students are pictured here with shirts and masks promoting the Student Organ Donation Advocates chapter recently started at MCHS.

MCHS students Kortney Poe, Sydney Lilley and Emily Greenwell are working to raise organ donation awareness in the community. The three students are pictured here with shirts and masks promoting the Student Organ Donation Advocates chapter recently started at MCHS.

The Mason County High School Student Organ Donation Advocates will kick off a Donate Life week event on April 9.

The event will begin on April 9 at noon on the lawn of the Mason County Fiscal Court on West Third Street in Maysville.

“Please join us and Mason County Judge-Executive, Owen McNeill, as we honor those that have been transplanted, are in need of transplantation, or those that have given the gift of life. Let’s show the rest of Kentucky that if you are in Mason County and in need of an organ transplant, you will not stand alone,” representatives with SODA said.

SODA is a national organization focused on education and registration through high school and college students. The Mason County High School chapter is the first in Kentucky. It was started by a group of students through the MCHS Future Career and Community Leaders of America chapter.

Emily Greenwell, a student at MCHS, said the day is about kicking off the Donate Life week, which is a national event to bring about awareness for organ donation.

“We want to raise awareness and show there is support for those going through organ donation,” she said.

According to Greenwell, there will be a flag raising and a speech given to discuss the importance of organ donation.

Greenwell said she wanted to focus her efforts on organ donation because it has a direct impact on her life.

Greenwell’s father is on the donation list for a new kidney.

“My dad needs a kidney transplant,” she said. “I knew there was a lot of misconceptions out there about organ donation and I wanted to do something to change that.”

According to Greenwell, Sydney Lilley and Kortney Poe decided to get on board with her efforts. Together, the students formed a Kentucky chapter of Student Organ Donation Advocates.

“We plan to hold different events in the community and we’ve filmed a commercial about organ donation for Limestone Cable,” Greenwell said. “We want to get the word out and get people signed up to be an organ donor.”

Lilley and Poe said they wanted to help because of their own misconceptions they have had over the years.

“I didn’t realize that you don’t have to be 18 to become an organ donor,” Lilley said. “If you’re 15 and a half and you have parental consent, you can be a donor. You also don’t have to be perfectly healthy. You can be ill or have sicknesses and still donate some of your organs.”

Poe added that she had learned a lot of new information through this project.

“I didn’t know that every 10 minutes a person is added to the organ donation list,” she said. “If you become an organ donor, you can save a lot of lives. A fact I learned was that you could potentially save eight lives as an organ donor.”

The students have several community events they hope to do throughout the year.