Concept/Purposes:
The concept of Organ Buddies was created in 1994 with four key purposes in mind. We envisioned Organ Buddies as:
1) stuffed toys
2) as characters in a children's book
3) as characters in an animated film
4) a set of greeting cards enabling transplant recipients to communicate with their donor/donor families
We have been successful in achieving three of our goals:
1) Providing Organ Buddies stuffed toys, (i.e. currently, “Sidney the Kidney”, “Bart the Heart” and “Oliver the Liver”, and in development, “Pat the Pancreas” and “Louie and Louise the Lung”) as ‘get well’ gifts of encouragement to support individuals of all ages through the ordeal of coping with organ transplantation.
2) The publication of "My Organ Buddies", a children's picture book , is in the process of being printed and will be available soon. Utilizing the Organ Buddies characters, this book is a fun and enjoyable way to help children under the location and function of their body's solid organs.
3) The transplant greeting cards were created to help recipients with their written communications of gratitude to their donor /donor families.
Our final mission is to:
1) Begin the process of converting "Organ Buddies" into animated characters to be featured in a short, educational video.
The main objectives of this project are to accomplish the following:
(1) Ease the fears of children during hospital and doctor visits.
(2) Promote wellness and good health habits.
(3) Promote organ donor awareness.
