With a growing list of people who can survive if they receive a transplant, the Center for Organ Recovery & Education, CORE, is going wherever it can to reach people who might register to become organ donors after they die. CORE staff members and volunteers go into schools, workplaces and houses of worship to tell people about the need. They reach out to people of different faiths and different racial and ethnic backgrounds.

"I think the biggest issue is getting individuals to the point where they understand that organ donation is important to the community," said Holly Bulvony, director of communications and public education for CORE, based in O'Hara Township.

"It's a gift only an individual can give."

The organization has materials designed to educate people about organ donation that can be distributed through employers, religious institutions and schools, Bulvony said.

CORE does outreach to workplaces through its "Partnering for Life" program.

There are many ways employers can make their workers familiar with organ donation.

Among the options are an article in the employee newsletter, the display of CORE brochures and donor cards, a donor registration competition involving various departments and paycheck stuffers.

CORE has faith-based brochures for churches and other houses of worship and can provide sermon suggestions to members of the clergy who want to bring the message to their congregations. It also can provide speakers, Bulvony said.

CORE urges houses of worship to become involved in the Nation Donor Sabbath, which takes place each year in November.

Cherie Peters, a CORE community relations coordinator, said she visits about 50 schools a year to speak to students about organ donation. Usually, she said, she brings a transplant recipient or a donor family member with her.

When getting their driver's licenses, students will have to make a decision about whether to become organ donors.

"This is one of the first major health-care decisions that each of them faces," Peters said.

Stephen B. Thomas, director of the Center for Minority Health at the University of Pittsburgh's Graduate School of Public Health, said the center uses CORE materials in the context of its Healthy Black Family Project.

The Healthy Black Family Project has programs to promote a healthy lifestyle and prevent hypertension and diabetes, which can lead to kidney failure.

One of Thomas' fields of research is issues involving organ donation in the black community. He said he found in his research that many black people are afraid to register as organ donors.

"They were afraid that their organs would be more valuable than their life" said Thomas, who explained they fear that doctors won't make an effort to save their lives in order to procure their organs.

Many in the community don't trust medical authorities because of a legacy of mistreatment, he said. One such example is the infamous "Tuskegee Study," from 1932 to 1972, in which 399 black men were tricked into leaving their syphilis untreated for years while the U.S. Public Health Service studied the effects of the disease on their bodies.

Thomas said some black people who have had organ transplants do not feel comfortable discussing their experience, so that takes away opportunities for others to learn that people of their race benefit from organ donation.

"Far too few African-Americans knew that people who look like them actually are benefiting (from organ donation)," he said.

The issue isn't merely academic for Thomas.

His older brother developed end-stage renal disease and almost died while awaiting a transplant. He finally received a kidney from a construction worker who died in an accident.

"His transplant took him from someone who was literally disabled to someone who was normal," Thomas said.