WHEREAS,  the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Transplantation has designated the month of April as National Donate Life Month to promote organ, tissue, blood and bone marrow donation awareness; and

WHEREAS,  in the fall of 2006 Donate Life America launched the Donor Designation Collaborative, a national effort to improve donation rates by ensuring each state has an effective system for allowing individuals to designate themselves as donors; and

WHEREAS,  this Donor Designation Collaborative has focused on encouraging state teams to test, adopt and share best practices that measurably increase the number of registered donors and since 2006 registries have been founded in every state of the Union; and

WHEREAS,  having a month designated as Donate Life Month will help Maine reach the goal of having as many adults as possible add their names to the Maine Donate Life Registry; and

WHEREAS,  more than 105,000 people in America are waiting for lifesaving transplants, and over 6,600 will die this year; and

WHEREAS,  last year more than 28,000 lives were saved through organ transplants and more than 1,000,000 life-enhancing tissue transplants are performed each year, offering patients a new chance at healthy, productive and normal lives; now, therefore, be it