ORGAN DONATION FOR MINORITIES FOCUS OF APRIL 23 EVENT

NABJ and Gift of Life MOTTEP team to help two veteran Detroit journalists

(DETROIT, MI) – Two former journalists’ need for kidneys and the growing need for organ donation for persons of color are the focus of an April 23 event to be held at Lola’s Restaurant in downtown Detroit.

Co-sponsored by Gift of Life Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program and the National Association of Black Journalists, Detroit Chapter, the event is designed to educate the public about the great need for organ donation for African Americans, and also bring awareness to the personal challenges faced by writer Jim McFarlin, a writer for the Metro Times and photographer Hugh Grannum, formerly of the Detroit Free Press. Both need kidneys.

The “Friend-raiser” will be held April 23 from 5:30-8 p.m. at Lola’s Restaurant, 1427 Randolph in downtown Detroit’s Harmonie Park. Participants are being asked to make a voluntary contribution to MOTTEP and also to help educate others about the need for organ donations.

“It’s important for the Detroit chapter of NABJ to have a partnership like this to spread the word about organ donation among the African American community,” said DC-NABJ President Andrew Humphrey. “The primary reason is because African Americans are an underrepresented population among organ donors.”

In Michigan, approximately 3,000 individuals are on waiting lists for organ donation, and 42 percent of them are African Americans, according to Gift of Life Michigan/Minority Organ Tissue Transplant Education Program. Nationally, about 100,000 people are on waiting lists and 35 percent are African American.

“I hope more lives are saved as a result of it (this event),” said Remonia Chapman, program director of Gift of Life Michigan/MOTTEP. Because we are “raising awareness and putting faces on the issue, people will realize this is happening to friends and family.”

Chapman said that she also hopes the event will remind people how to sign up to ultimately donate an organ — by adding a red sticker to his or her driver’s license.

Founded in Michigan 15 years ago, Gift of Life/MOTTEP has a mission to reduce the disparity in the number of ethnic minorities on the transplant waiting list and to encourage donors to sign up on the organ donor registry after death. Since the group’s inception, the number of donors has nearly doubled.

DC-NABJ is a non-profit organization dedicated to ensuring balance in hiring and coverage in the area’s news outlets. The organization also awards scholarships and hosts discussions on current events.

For more information on organ donation or to contribute, call 1-800-482-4881 or go to the organization’s Web site at www.motteplifewalk.org