A dedication ceremony was held for the Garden of Life Tuesday, June 28, at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Penn State College of Medicine. More than 200 participants took part in the ribbon-cutting ceremony officially opening this joint project of the medical center and Gift of Life Donor Program.
The garden is designed as a thoughtful space honoring organ and tissue donors and their families. Darrell G. Kirch, medical center chief executive officer, and Howard M. Nathan, chief executive officer and president, Gift of Life Donor Program, presented during the ceremony. Other speakers included Cheryl Eshenour, mother of a pediatric donor, and Kathy Miller, a heart-transplant recipient.
"We hope the garden will be a place to remember," Kirch noted during his welcome. "A place to remember the people who gave so unselfishly of themselves."
Throughout the 25-year relationship between the medical center and Gift of Life, more than 1,000 people have received the gift of life, thanks to the generosity of donors from the medical center. During the dedication ceremony, Nathan presented Kirch and the medical center transplant teams with the Department of Health and Human Services Organ Donation Medal of Honor. The medal signifies an organ and tissue donation rate of 75 percent or higher during a 12-month period. Only 3 percent of hospitals nationwide have achieved this honor in 2005.
The Garden of Life was designed by Carter van Dyke Associates of Doylestown. The design incorporates a variety of soothing and meditative spaces, including multiple water features designed to provide a rejuvenating experience for donor families, recipients and other visitors. The Garden of Life honors the individuals and families who have chosen to give the gift of life and creates a welcoming space for others facing the same challenges.
Said Cheryl Eshenour, "Eight years ago I knew little about organ and tissue donation. Our family and son Jonathan were treated with such care and compassion by Gift of Life and the medical center -- we have never once regretted our choice. Jonathan's organs gave four other people another chance at life."
Gift of Life Donor Program is a nonprofit organ procurement organization that coordinates organ and tissue donation and transplantation in the eastern half of Pennsylvania, southern New Jersey and Delaware. For the last 32 years, Gift of Life Donor Program has served as the link between donors and patients awaiting life-saving transplants, coordinating over 22,000 vital organ transplants and tens of thousands of tissue transplants. Gift of Life Donor Program, one of the oldest of the 58 donor programs in the United States, is the primary source of information regarding organ and tissue donation and transplantation in the tri-state area. For more information, call Gift of Life Donor Program at (800)DONORS-1 or visit the Web site at http://www.donors1.org