June 2010

S.C. Donor Documentary Amasses National Awards; Increases Donor Registrations

Chronicle: Paul's Gift – the documentary of one South Carolina man's organ and tissue donation and the lives he saved – is among the 36 winners of the prestigious Peabody Awards, announced on March 31, 2010, by the University of Georgia's Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication. The Peabody press release announcing the best in electronic media for 2009 states, "Simple, ingenious and effective, this public-service special followed the donated organs of an accident victim to a variety of recipients, showing their joy and gratitude, thus boosting a most worthy cause."

The documentary has recently earned numerous other highly competitive and coveted journalism honors, but, more importantly, it has inspired hundreds of people to signup as donors on the South Carolina Organ and Tissue Donor Registry – www.Every11Minutes.org.

Years in the Making

LifePoint, Inc., – South Carolina's Organ Procurement Organization – spent several years coordinating plans to honor a donor in a documentary if and when a donor's family would allow cameras to follow the process. Laying the groundwork included partnering with WYFF-TV in Greenville, S.C., along with Greenville Hospital System University Medical Center and the Medical University of South Carolina. Every effort would be made to chronicle the teamwork involved in fulfilling a South Carolina donor’s final wishes and the critical efforts to save as many lives as possible through transplantation.

Ultimately, after Paul Savitz died suddenly, his wife Kayelen allowed WYFF-TV cameras to document Paul's organ and tissue donation in real-time. Meanwhile, the patients who waited and hoped for his final gifts granted permission for interviews. "Our goal was to show the gift that Paul and his family gave to strangers, from his sudden death and family's loss to the joy of meeting the strangers he saved," said Justin Antoniotti, WYFF News Director. Accomplishing that also meant timely teamwork with the Mid-South Transplant Foundation.

WYFF was one of only five local TV stations in the U.S. that were honored with a 2009 Peabody Award. Among the year's 35 other Peabody winners were: a CBS News 60 Minutes report entitled, The Cost of Dying, the ABC program Modern Family and the Twentieth Century Fox program Glee, as well as npr.org and SesameStreet.org. Emcee for the May 17 awards presentation in New York was former Peabody winner Diane Sawyer, anchor of ABC's World News.

Collaborating to Honor the Gift

Many LifePoint team members helped plan the documentary, many other professionals at LifePoint and in the hospitals were part of the care team who facilitated Paul's Gift. "But we cannot forget the special donor family and recipients for allowing us to tell their stories," said Mark Johnson, LifePoint Media Relations Coordinator.

Nancy A. Kay, LifePoint President and CEO, said, "Paul's Gift illustrates how closely so many donation partners must work together to honor a donor’s final gift. This achievement simply would not have been possible without the wonderful collaboration we had with WYFF-TV, Greenville Hospital, the MUSC transplant center and with the Memphis donor program. We don't do the work we do in order to win awards; however, to be recognized at the highest levels is very gratifying for LifePoint and for all who are involved in the work of donation and transplantation."

Show Increases Registry Signups

Paul's Gift has had a far-reaching impact on donor registrations. It has generated a measurable increase in signups on the South Carolina Organ and Tissue Registry, according to Donate Life South Carolina (DLSC), which maintains the registry. There was a spike in donor registrants following a phone bank that aired on WYFF one day after Paul's Gift was aired and throughout a month-long public service announcements campaign. During that time 553 people cited the documentary as the reason they signed up in the online registry. DLSC also reports a spike in registrants at the South Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles that was attributable to the show.

Awards Keep On Coming

Among the many additional honors for Chronicle: Paul's Gift is a prestigious Edward R. Murrow Award in the Large Market Television – Video News Documentary category for the competition's five-state Region 8. The award recognizes the show's spirit of honesty, integrity and excellence that Edward R. Murrow pioneered as the standard for the news profession.

Chronicle: Paul's Gift earned second place in the distinguished 2010 Broadcast Television National Headliner Awards competition in the Public Service category. Founded in 1934 by the Press Club of Atlantic City, the National Headliner Awards program is one of the oldest and largest annual contests recognizing journalistic merit in the communications industry.

In addition, the educational and inspirational documentary took first place in the News Documentary (Division 1) category of the 2009 Radio and Television Digital News Association of the Carolinas competition.

Last, but not least, Paul's Gift garnered a Donate Life Hollywood Inspire Award, for having an accurate and inspiring storyline that motivates viewers to help save lives by being organ and tissue donors. Donate Life Hollywood is a project of Donate Life America.

Donation Education Tool

The documentary continues to be a strong outreach and educational tool illustrating the need for donors as well as the actual donation and transplantation process. Many South Carolina hospitals are currently using it as part of a statewide marketing campaign for increasing registered donors within the hospital workplace. It is also being widely used for educational purposes by coroners and funeral home professionals to help honor the final gifts of donors in South Carolina.

Presently there are more than 1,000 people on the state’s waiting list. And every 11 minutes another person is added to the national list. The essence of the multi-award-winning documentary is that in portraying the power of Paul's Gift it also portrays the power each person has to give their own gift of life to save others.

Chronicle: Paul's Gift is viewable online at WYFF