Six short weeks from now, thousands of Utah's most unsung, unassuming — and deserving — heroes will be publicly honored when the country's first Celebration of Life Monument will be unveiled and dedicated on May 1 at the southeast corner of Salt Lake City's new Library Square.
The crown jewel of the monument will be a Wall of Honor filled with names of people, living and dead, who have donated organs, eyes, tissues and even blood (10 gallons or more in a lifetime) so that others may benefit from their selfless largesse.
The only problem for organizers at the Quest for the Gift of Life Foundation as the big day rapidly approaches is this: They know they haven't found every donor deserving of having his or her name etched permanently on the Wall of Honor.
They have sent more than 10,000 letters soliciting the names of donors. They have spent the last year researching donor activity and history in an attempt to not leave anyone out.
But they know they haven't found everyone.
"Please," asks Jeannene Barham, the Quest for the Gift of Life Foundation's executive director, "if anyone knows someone who should be memorialized as part of the monument, call 801-562-1575, or go to www.celebrationoflifemonument.com and complete the submission forms."
Jeannene points out that the wall, like organ donation, will be a perpetual project. New names of hero donors will be added at periodic intervals after the May dedication. If someone's name is missed, the oversight can be corrected. Still, every effort is being made to recognize all donors in the beginning.
Through the efforts of the Quest for the Gift of Life Foundation, the Salt Lake City mayor's office, no less than 16 separate nonprofit agencies, the Utah Coalition for Organ, Eye and Tissue Donation and a small army of extraordinarily dedicated volunteers, Utah is taking the lead in donor awareness. The Celebration of Life Monument is just one of many innovative projects currently under way. The idea to pay tribute to donors in such a grand and public way has not gone unnoticed. At the pre-dedication luncheon scheduled for April 30, the guest speakers will be the U.S. Deputy Surgeon General, Dr. Ken Moritsugu, and Olympic snowboard bronze medalist Chris Klug.
Moritsugu and Klug are well-known advocates inside the donor community. Dr. Moritsugu's wife and a daughter were tragically killed in separate automobile accidents four years apart. Both planned ahead to be donors and, as a result, a total of 12 individuals received life-preserving and life-enhancing gifts of hearts, livers, kidneys and corneas.
As for Klug, he was the recipient of a liver transplant 18 months before the Salt Lake Olympic Winter Games of 2002. One of the first people he thanked after winning his bronze medal was the boy who died and donated his liver.
At the upcoming festivities, Klug and Dr. Moritsugu will bring real-life emotion to the importance of donating life. But it will be the monument on Library Square that will stand as a permanent tribute to those thousands of Utahns who have given freely of themselves.
Jeannene Barham, and others, want the list to be as long and impressive, and complete, as it should be. The people whose names are on the Wall of Honor deserve no less.
Lee Benson's column runs Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com and faxes to 801-237-2527.