PROCLAMATION

A PROCLAMATION TO DESIGNATE APRIL 2005 AS DONATE LIFE MONTH

IN FAUQUIER COUNTY

WHEREAS, organ donation is a life-giving action and should be supported vigorously; and

WHEREAS, the Washington Regional Transplant Consortium serves 4.6 million people, more than 61,000 of those are Fauquier County residents, with one of the nation’s only living-donor programs at 44 hospitals and seven transplant centers; and

WHEREAS, more than 87,000 people nationally are waiting for a life saving organ transplant and more than 2,200 of them live in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan area; and

WHEREAS, every day 17 people die waiting for a transplant since, even after a person decides to be a donor, many opportunities are missed because families do not know what their loved ones wanted; and

WHEREAS, during Donate Life Month we honor our County’s organ and tissue donors and their families, whose decision to share the gift of life through America's donor programs serves as a positive example for all our citizens; now, therefore, be it

PROCLAIMED by the Fauquier County Board of Supervisors this 14^th day of April 2005, That the Board of Supervisors does hereby designate April 2005 as Donate Life Month in Fauquier County; and, be it

PROCLAIMED FURTHER, That the Board of Supervisors urges all citizens to sign an organ and tissue donor card, to inform their family of their decision and to help raise awareness of the important need for organ and tissue donation in our community.

______________________________

Raymond E. Graham

Chairman of the Board