DMV awarded for helping save lives | Community Spirit

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DMV awarded for helping save lives

Submitted by Kim Kopka Ratcliff, News Anchor, Carolina in the Morning

Friday, June 8th, 2012, 8:48am

Topics: Community Spirit, Families, People, Transportation

WILMINGTON,NC (WECT)- Getting or renewing your driver's license is important in more ways than one. It enables you to get to work, school or anywhere else you want to go. It can also help save lives if you answer this question with a "yes". “Do you want to be an organ donor?”

Donate Life NC recently awarded a Wilmingtion DMV office for doing a good job getting people to say "yes" to that question.

Here are more details from the news release:

Donate Life North Carolina awarded two plaques to the Wilmington (North) Driver License Office of the NC Division of Motor Vehicles (NC DMV) for achieving both the highest and most improved donor designation rates in its district for 2011. The Wilmington (North) office signed up 67.6 percent of its customers as organ and eye donors in 2011, which is well above the average state sign-up rate at 52.8 percent. Additionally, the office had a 2.3 percent increase in its donor designation rate from 2010 to 2011.

Donate Life NC recognizes the driver license offices in each of the 14 DMV districts in North Carolina for achieving the highest and the most improved donor designation rates in their respective geographic regions. This is the second year the Wilmington (North) DMV has received the award from Donate Life NC for highest donor designation rate in its district. The purpose of the awards program is to share appreciation for the examiners, whose job has a direct impact on the more than 114,000 people across the country waiting for a much needed organ.

“We developed this program in 2010 to acknowledge and honor the efforts of DMV personnel who serve as integral members of our donation and transplantation teams,” said Sharon Hirsch, Executive Director of Donate Life NC. “Each day, DMV personnel help facilitate donation wishes as people receive or renew a driver’s license or ID card in North Carolina. These decisions have life-saving implications for not only the over 3500 North Carolinians on the waiting list but the tens of thousands across the country awaiting organ transplants. We hope the awards program highlights their efforts and creates more opportunities for people to make the decision to donate.”