National Service
Kin-ODAC (organ Donor Awareness Campaign)

The Kin Organ Donor Awareness Campaign (Kin-ODAC) was established in 2001 at National Convention to improve Kin education on issues of concern and importance to organ donation across Canada, and then to extend that education throughout our communities.

It was the dream of Andrew Hatfield, born with a complex congenital heart disease and the first Kin Kid to join the St. John's East Kinsmen Club (his father, Larry, was a life member) that inspired Kin across Canada to get involved with organ donor awareness. Through his Kin connection, Andrew felt a contribution could be made to the program that became his passion, the Organ Donor program. And while thinking out loud one day he revealed his wish to help in some way. That was the beginning of what would eventually become Kin-ODAC, passed at National Convention in Corner Brook 2001 as the first ever, national public awareness project in Kin. It has become an educational avenue for the organ donor program to work through the network of clubs that is Kin Canada.

Annually, the end of April marks National Organ and Tissue Donor Awareness Week. For Kin members, it is a time to increase awareness among ourselves about the Organ Donor program, to assist in the education of our communities, and to be a contact that the National Organ Donor Program can call upon when they need an inroad to a community where we already exist.

Partnership
This partnership with the Organ Donor Program is in fact an extension of our partnership with the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The network of Kinsmen and Kinettes has made great strides in their efforts against CF over the last 40 years. Kin can extend that power to help those who are awaiting transplants. Many of the young adults with CF have reached the age of adulthood due to the efforts of kin, and we can help them further by educating Kin members about the need for organ donation. CF patients and others need transplantation to live.
Organ donation can mean the difference between life and death for many people. For others it represents a total transformation in their quality of life. For example, a person with CF requiring a lung transplant needs the operation to live, while a person needing dialysis requires treatment three days a week for four hours and a kidney transplant would add improvement to their daily life.

"Andrew Hatfield, who died in 2000 while waiting for a transplant, would be very proud of how Kin has responded to this effort, and if he could have seen how far his dream has come he would have said a sincere thank you to all of you. There are many 'Andrews' out there, awaiting transplants to improve, prolong and save their lives." (Anne Marie Fleming, St. John’s East Kinettes)

This gives Canadians all the more reason to take the time to make their wishes known either by filling out their province's organ donor card or registering their wishes through a provincial registry. Kin Organ Donor Cards are available through Jess Wulff at Kin headquarters, jwulff@kincanada.ca, Anne Marie Fleming at flemingmyc@yahoo.ca or Jason Balaban at the Canadian Cystic Fibrosis Foundation at jbalaban@cysticfibrosis.ca or (800) 378-2233 or ext 240.


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