“Give to Live” Challenge Aims to Break Guinness World Record for Organ Donation
Event will rally regional support to register more than 4,135 new donors
Alexa’s Hope, an organization dedicated to saving lives by increasing the number of registered organ, eye and tissue donors, aims to break a GUINNESS WORLD RECORD® in Fargo on Saturday, Nov. 23. The initiative, called “Give to Live,” will rally regional support to encourage people to register as a donor, in person, at one of three sites in the city during an eight-hour period. The record to beat is 4,135 donor registrations currently held by Dharmsinh Desai University in Nadiad, Gujarat India.
One of the sites to register for the “Give to Live” challenge will be the FargoDome. All other participants may register at the Fargo Air Museum or the Fargo Coliseum. A vast number of people are needed to step forward and break the record. Donor registration must be completed in person between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. at one of the three sites. To achieve world record status, more than eight people per minute must register as a donor. People from all states who are not currently registered in North Dakota are able to participate toward this ambitious goal. You can find more information about the challenge online at www.alexashope.org.
The namesake of Alexa’s Hope is Alexa Kersting, a 14 year old girl from West Fargo, N.D. who died while waiting for a double lung transplant in 2004. Her mother, Monica Kersting, began the non-profit organization to create a culture where registering to save lives through organ and tissue donation is the norm, not the exception.
There are currently more than 120,000 people waiting for a life-saving organ transplant in the United States, including more than 3,500 in the Upper Midwest. North Dakota and Minnesota rank in the top 10 states in the nation for donor registration, with 67% and 63% respectively. Nationally, only 45% of adults are registered donors. One of the goals of Alexa’s Hope is to increase the percent of U.S. adults registered as a donor from 45% to 75%.