Donor Memorial Unveiling
On National Blue and Green Day, Friday, April 21, the new Lifeline of Ohio Donor Memorial was unveiled. More than 600 were in attendance to honor the heroes of organ, eye and tissue donation.
The design of our new Memorial was strongly influenced by a committee of stakeholders organized to provide feedback about the current site and input regarding how to best honor and remember donors moving forward. This group included donor parents, a donor sister, bereavement staff, the wife of a man who died waiting for a heart, the father of a liver recipient and Lifeline of Ohio staff members. Throughout the conversations, the theme of the “Ripple Effect” became clear – how one donor’s gift has an impact on many, many lives.
Based on the conversation, the ripple effect became the inspiration for the design for this uplifting Donor Memorial which honors and celebrates the heroes of organ, eye and tissue donation. The result of the input is a design which leads all visitors through the Memorial for a moment of pause and reverence for the ultimate Gift of Life.
Memorial Features
Two fountains, representing the donor and the recipient, provide the source of the ripples which become granite paver ripple rings that extend across the plaza through the garden and meet in the Remembrance Room. Designed as an “embrace,” the Remembrance Room is a spiritual place where visitors are invited to pause and remember those that gave the gifts of life, sight and healing. One of the illuminated blue glass panels at the gateway of the Remembrance Room states, “The ripple starts with one generous act that changes countless lives and creates endless possibilities.”
The eight wall planes in the Remembrance Room represent the eight lives that can be saved by the gifts of one organ donor. And it is on these wall planes that the names of hundreds, and someday thousands, of heroes of donation will be prominently and permanently displayed in stainless steel panels.
For more information, please visit www.lifelineofohio.org/memorial