AT A MEETING HELD ON TUESDAY, April 6, The Riverside County Board of Supervisors proclaimed April 2010 as DMV/Donate Life California Month, encouraging residents to become organ and tissue donors. Debbie Morgan, Chairman/CEO of the United Organ Transplant Association, and Ana Lopez, manager of the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Riverside-Brockton office accepted the resolution.

More than 100,000 individuals nationwide and more than 21,000 in California are currently on the national organ transplant waiting list. The Donate Life California Organ and Tissue Donor Registry, the state’s first online service to record an individual’s commitment to donate life, has signed up over six million Californians since it began in 2005. Each person can save up to eight lives through organ donation and heal another 50 lives through tissue donation.

People of all ages can be donors and unlike blood donation, few medical conditions preclude donation. Residents can register with the Donate Life California registry when applying for or renewing a driver’s license or identification card at the DMV. Alternatively, they may register online at www.donateLIFEcalifornia.org or www.doneVIDAcalifornia.org.