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Olds dealership promotes signing organ donor cards

Recipients of organ donations will be at Hildebrand's event to encourage sign-ups
MVT Green Shirt Day logo

OLDS — On April 7, in honour of Green Shirt Day, Hildebrand Motors is holding a promotion to encourage more people to donate their organs and raise money for the cause.

On that day, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., three local residents positively impacted by organ donation will be in front of the dealership encouraging residents to sign forms so they can be registered at Olds Registries to donate their organs. 

The dealership will donate $100 for every vehicle sold in April to Second Chance at Life Trail Ride Society.

The society subsidizes places for people to stay while they’re awaiting or recovering from organ transplant operations.

Logan Boulet, the grandson of Roland and Angelina Boulet of Olds, died April 7, 2018 of injuries sustained after a collision the previous day between a bus carrying players and staff of the Humboldt Broncos hockey team and a semi-trailer about 250 kilometres northeast of Saskatoon.

Sixteen people were killed and 13 were injured, including Olds resident Graysen Cameron.

After Logan passed away, his parents, Bernadine and Toby of Lethbridge, donated his organs so that six lives could be saved. Logan had previously made that wish to donate known to his parents. Toby is a former Olds resident.

As a result, April 7 is known as Green Shirt Day, a day to pay tribute to Logan and others killed or injured in the bus crash and to encourage Canadians to register to have their organs donated.

Three local residents who received organ transplants -- Cliff Tuggle, Kathy Rowland and Jennifer Lynch – are very grateful for Hildebrand’s decision. They’ll be promoting the signing of donor cards that day.

Cliff, 66, underwent a double lung transplant last fall and is still recovering.

"It’s a blessing for them – for the recipients, for people to actually donate,” he said during an interview.

He said when he was younger, he never thought much about organ donation and its benefits.

“But what the donors, what they need to realize is it’s somebody else’s life -- and I can’t explain it, the benefits,” he said.

Rowland received a kidney from her sister about 21 years ago.

“I just think that it’s very important that you do this because it can change many peoples’ lives by donating your organs – and it certainly changed mine,” she said. 

Lynch, who had a liver transplant in 2018, agrees.

“I think it’s awesome,” she said. “I mean, I think it’s very important and it’s just definitely a wonderful thing for them to be bringing attention to it.”

Hildebrand Motors general sales manager Keith Klinck says the company is pleased to be involved. 

“Since we do have some people on staff or members on staff who have been affected by organ donation or family members have needed organs, we felt it would be something we should embrace to do something to help support the cause to allow those things to happen,” he said. 

Klinck said this is the first year Hildebrand Motors has held this event.

He said they planned to run it last year but were unable to do so because they were closed, due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions at the time.

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