Photo by Chris Meyer
Buzan (left) Riggle
IOPO cover photos by 20/20 Photography
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Susie Buzan, scheduling officer at the IUB School of Music, and Dorothy Riggle, manager of the School of Music’s Office of Marketing and Publicity, have been friends in the workplace and in life for a good decade and a half.
The two, by virtue of their friendship and mutual interest
in organ donation, had the distinction of being the cover
subjects of a special insert in the Indianapolis Star
Feb. 27 which profiles the Indiana Organ Procurement Organization,
Inc. (IOPO).
IOPO’s main mission is to get the word out for the need of organ, tissue and eye donors; last year, 522 organs from 161 Hoosier donors gave multiple recipients new leases on life.
Buzan became involved in the organization after taking a leadership class that required she take an active role in a community outreach project; she didn’t need to look farther than her colleague Riggle to find an outreach that fit the bill.
Riggle is a candidate for a lung transplant, and she’s been on the transplant waiting list for more than a year. While she works full time and gets up at 4:30 a.m. five days a week to do a two-hour workout, she wears an oxygen mask and wears the pager that will alert her to the fact that she has a healthy lung waiting. Following transplant surgery, she looks forward to resuming some of her earlier interests, such as gardening, attending concerts, hiking and continuing her master’s degree work in library and information sciences.
Buzan was the facilitator of an IOPO Circle of Life campaign earlier this week at the School of Music. It’s her mission to raise awareness about the importance of organ donation and donor registration among IU faculty, staff and students alike; last semester, she set up information booths at student-oriented activities and health fairs to get her message out to as many as possible in the Bloomington area. Last year, more than 25,000 lives in the U.S. were saved through organ transplants.
Buzan’s work with IOPO, of course, has no direct bearing on when Riggle’s pager will sound the clarion call. Still, the fact that 17 people waiting for a transplant die every day in this country is enough information for Buzan. She wants to recruit as many donors as possible. Hoosiers may register when they renew their driver’s license, or online, at this Web site:
http://www.iopo.org
Read about other outstanding
IU employees
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