Third annual Canadian Transplant Association Green Shirt Day in honour of Humboldt Broncos defenseman Logan Boulet encourages organ donation registration

LETHBRIDGE, Alberta, April 07, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The third annual Green Shirt Day is today, in partnership with the Kidney Foundation of Canada, Canadian Blood Services, and Canada’s Organ & Tissue Donation Community.

The day encourages people across Canada to talk to their family about organ donation, register their wishes, and to remember those that have lost their lives and gave the gift of life.

There is widespread enthusiasm from the organ donation and transplant community, schools, and workplaces to take part in Green Shirt Day. Across Canada, cities have proclaimed April 7th Green Shirt Day and landmarks will be lighting up in green.

“Together Strong” is the 2021 Green Shirt Day slogan. It encourages Canadians to unite online, share their support for organ donation, share stories and bring green shirts to online platforms. We are Together Strong. Find out about how you can participate at greenshirtday.ca/be-inspired

It is estimated that almost 150,000 Canadians registered as organ donors in the weeks following the Humboldt crash in 2018 that took Logan Boulet’s life and led to him being an organ and tissue donor, known as the Logan Boulet Effect. The next year, Green Shirt Day 2019 inspired another hundred thousand or more to take action. While the COVID-19 challenges of 2020 required a last-minute shift of Green Shirt Day plans, there was still active interest in promoting organ donation. However, overall, in 2020 registration numbers were down about 39%.

This year, with COVID-19 restrictions in effect to varying degrees across the country, it is key that Canadians get creative on Green Shirt Day to help raise awareness about organ donation and encourage even more registrations. In person events and activities may be limited, but we encourage people to unite “Together Strong” and bring their support and spirit (and green shirts) online this year.

“Let’s share our support for organ and tissue donation by showing Canada we all want to give the gift of a life,’’ suggests Toby Boulet, Logan Boulet’s father. “Post a picture or video wherever you share and let your friends and family know that you want to give the gift of life and that you are a registered donor”.

Canadians are encouraged to use the hashtags #GreenShirtDay #LoganBouletEffect #TogetherStrong in their posts to expand the reach of the initiative.

Logan’s legacy reminds us how important it is for Canadians to talk with their family about their organ donation wishes. It’s suggested that every person who registers their intent to donate talks about it with four others. That means that 150,000 new registrants equal approximately 600,000 conversations about organ donation.

Get more background, key statistics, organ donation terminology, and digital assets from our media kit.

This year, we are pleased to provide toolkits to support participation from schools, businesses, teams, clubs and organizations.

• Information package for school participation
• Information package for businesses, teams, clubs and organizations

About Canadian Transplant Association Green Shirt Day
The Canada-wide Green Shirt Day was created to remember the victims and families of the tragic Humboldt Broncos bus crash in Saskatchewan in 2018. And, to continue Logan Boulet’s legacy by inspiring Canadians to register as organ donors and to talk to their families about their wishes.

On April 7, learning that he would not recover, Bernadine and Toby Boulet offered to donate their son, Logan Boulet’s organs. They did so because Logan had registered as an organ donor and had spoken to his parents about his wishes. His generous final act inspired almost 150,000 donor registrations across Canada shortly thereafter, which became known as the Logan Boulet Effect.

CONTACT: Media contacts:

Brenda Brown
President
Canadian Transplant Association
604-807-8282
bbrown@txworks.ca

Renée Horton
Canadian Blood Services
1-877-709-7773 | media@blood.ca

Paul St-Germain
National Communications Manager
The Kidney Foundation of Canada
514-369-4806 or 1-800-361-7494 ext. 240
paul.stgermain@kidney.ca

Toby Boulet
tobyboulet@shaw.ca