Benton family continues raising awareness during Donate Life Month

BENTON, Mo. — In a time when everything is changing, Rhonda and Aaron Robert and their daughter, Claire, want to remind the community one thing that will not change this year is their effort to raise awareness of organ, eye and tissue donations.

At the beginning of this month, which is also Donate Life Month, the Robert family took time to “green up” the city of Benton, decorating business fronts with blue and green bows as well as the Benton City Hall and Scott County Courthouse.

“We wanted to make sure the people of Benton knew that despite COVID-19, we’re still going to do what we can to support the cause,” Rhonda Robert said.

Robert said she thinks Benton residents and passers-by will be glad to see the familiar blue and green ribbons this year.

“Things are so uncertain right now that you don’t know what’s going to happen, and we wanted people to know they could still count on us with trying to raise awareness and do our part in the community,” Robert said.

During the national observance, people are encouraged to spread awareness about organ, eye and tissue donation by wearing blue and green and participating in community events. With the ongoing spread of COVID-19, Donate Life America encouraged the cancellation of all in-person events for Donate Life Month and pushed an online approach for April Donate Life Month observances through social media, Robert noted.

As families are spending more time together during the statewide stay-at-home order, Robert said now would be an opportune time for family members to discuss the topic with each other and learn their own wishes.

“This is an opportunity for families as a whole to have that conversation. It can be an uncomfortable topic for many. However, it is necessary,” Robert said. “You just go online. You don’t have to go anywhere.”

Robert said she and her husband were fortunate to have had that talk with their 15-year-old son, Kaden Robert, before he died tragically of an incidental gunshot wound on June 24, 2014.

Robert said when a young friend of Kaden’s died a few months before him, Robert said she used the opportunity to have a conversation with him about organ donation.

Knowing their son wanted to donate his organs and tissue did take off some of the pressure of so many other difficult decisions she and her husband were dealing with at the time of Kaden’s death, Robert said.

“Through organ donation, Kaden was able to save the lives of two children and three adults,” his mother said.

Since 2015, the Benton Board of Alderman have passed proclamations declaring the month of April as Donate Life Month in honor of Robert and local teens, Nick Holt and Dominic Hooper who each tragically lost their lives in 2014 and Remington Lambert in 2016.

As a donor, one person can save up to eight lives through organ donation and enhance more than 100 lives through the lifesaving and healing gift of tissue donation, according to the American Transplant Foundation. Almost 114,000 people in the United States are currently on the waiting list for a lifesaving organ transplant, the Foundation said.

For National Donate Life Month 2020, Donate Life America was inspired by the springtime scene of a garden, according to its website. A garden and insects within it serve as symbols of hope, courage and transformed life — themes found within the donation and transplantation journey, the organization website said.

“In honor of donors, they’re encouraging people to plant forget-me-not flowers,” Robert said.

Robert also noted this year’s National Donate Life Blue and Green Day is April 17. On this day, the public is encouraged to wear blue and green and to engage in sharing the Donate Life message and promoting the importance of registering as an organ, eye and tissue donor.

“Twenty-two people die each day because the organ they need is not donated in time,” Robert said, quoting a statistic from Donate Life America.

The Roberts hope the green and blue ignite gift-of-life conversations to those walking or driving through Benton this month and remind them to not take their gifts of sight and ability to move freely for granted.

“When you are able to walk by and see this, you have the gift of sight already,” Robert said as she looked at the green-and-blue decorated poles at Benton City Hall. “This will serve as reminder there are so many people who cannot physically see or who cannot physically walk, and we just want you to be aware that those gifts are available.”

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To learn more about organ, eye and tissue donations, visit www.midamericatransplant.org; registerme.org; or donatelife.net.