Athletics Teams Up with Mid-America Transplant for Donate Life Baseball & Softball Games This Weekend
4/9/2025 8:14:00 AM | Baseball, Softball
On April 11 and 12, Southeast Missouri's baseball and softball teams are swapping out their jerseys for blue and green to raise awareness for organ and tissue donation. The games are part of a collaboration between SEMO Athletics and Mid-America Transplant to celebrate National Donate Life Month in April.
The Donate Life baseball game will be held Friday, April 11 when the Redhawks open their series vs. Eastern Illinois at 6 p.m., CT. Baseball tickets are $8 each when purchased online at SEMORedhawks.com, or $10 at the gate. The Donate Life softball doubleheader is Saturday, April 12 vs. Morehead State. The twin bill, which is free to attend, begins at 12 p.m. at the Southeast Softball Complex.
"The Donate Life games are an important tradition for the SEMO Redhawks," said Nate Saverino, Senior Associate Director of Athletics for External Operations. "Our baseball, softball, soccer and basketball teams hold these games each season to encourage fans to join us in saying yes and giving life as a registered donor."
The Southeast Missouri community knows the impact of organ and tissue donation firsthand. Former SEMO soccer student-athlete Meg Herndon was tragically involved in a fatal accident. Through her selfless gift of organ and tissue donation, Meg was able to save and heal 17 lives. Former music major Madeline Flieg was also a registered donor. When she died during her senior year, her corneas restored sight to two people and 42 other lives were healed through tissue donation.
"We appreciate how SEMO continues to honor these students' legacies by celebrating their lifesaving impact," said Kevin Lee, President and CEO of Mid-America Transplant. "We hope they continue to inspire the next generation of students and fans to say yes to organ and tissue donation. It takes only two minutes to register and costs absolutely nothing, but it could mean everything to the 100,000 people waiting for a second chance at life."
In 2024, 121 people from Southeast Missouri gave the gift of life through donation. These donor heroes made 55 lifesaving organ transplants possible, gave sight to 87 people and healed more than 8,000 people through tissue donation.
Organ and tissue donation is essential for saving lives:
About Mid-America Transplant
Mid-America Transplant enables adults and children to receive lifesaving gifts through organ and tissue donations. For nearly 50 years, it has facilitated and coordinated organ, tissue, and eye donation, and now serves 84 counties covering eastern Missouri, southern Illinois and northeast Arkansas that together are home to 4.7 million people. It saves lives by providing expert and compassionate care for organ donors, recipients and families, and transforms the clinical processes required to recover and transplant organs and tissues. Mid-America Transplant was the first such organization in the U.S. to use an in-house operating room for organ recovery and pioneered innovative models of increasing donor registry enrollment to provide organs and tissues to those in need. It is federally designated as one of 56 such organizations in the U.S. and is the first organ procurement organization (OPO) to be recognized as a recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Performance Excellence, and the only two-time recipient. For more information, visit MidAmericaTransplant.org.
The Donate Life baseball game will be held Friday, April 11 when the Redhawks open their series vs. Eastern Illinois at 6 p.m., CT. Baseball tickets are $8 each when purchased online at SEMORedhawks.com, or $10 at the gate. The Donate Life softball doubleheader is Saturday, April 12 vs. Morehead State. The twin bill, which is free to attend, begins at 12 p.m. at the Southeast Softball Complex.
"The Donate Life games are an important tradition for the SEMO Redhawks," said Nate Saverino, Senior Associate Director of Athletics for External Operations. "Our baseball, softball, soccer and basketball teams hold these games each season to encourage fans to join us in saying yes and giving life as a registered donor."
The Southeast Missouri community knows the impact of organ and tissue donation firsthand. Former SEMO soccer student-athlete Meg Herndon was tragically involved in a fatal accident. Through her selfless gift of organ and tissue donation, Meg was able to save and heal 17 lives. Former music major Madeline Flieg was also a registered donor. When she died during her senior year, her corneas restored sight to two people and 42 other lives were healed through tissue donation.
"We appreciate how SEMO continues to honor these students' legacies by celebrating their lifesaving impact," said Kevin Lee, President and CEO of Mid-America Transplant. "We hope they continue to inspire the next generation of students and fans to say yes to organ and tissue donation. It takes only two minutes to register and costs absolutely nothing, but it could mean everything to the 100,000 people waiting for a second chance at life."
In 2024, 121 people from Southeast Missouri gave the gift of life through donation. These donor heroes made 55 lifesaving organ transplants possible, gave sight to 87 people and healed more than 8,000 people through tissue donation.
Organ and tissue donation is essential for saving lives:
- Every 8 minutes, someone is added to the national transplant waiting list.
- 17 people die each day waiting for an organ transplant.
- In 2024, Mid-America Transplant facilitated 891 organ transplants from 317 donors. More than 26,000 donors gave gifts of tissue to improve the quality of life for more than 197,000 people. In addition, more than 1,700 donors gave corneas to enable life-changing vision transplants.
About Mid-America Transplant
Mid-America Transplant enables adults and children to receive lifesaving gifts through organ and tissue donations. For nearly 50 years, it has facilitated and coordinated organ, tissue, and eye donation, and now serves 84 counties covering eastern Missouri, southern Illinois and northeast Arkansas that together are home to 4.7 million people. It saves lives by providing expert and compassionate care for organ donors, recipients and families, and transforms the clinical processes required to recover and transplant organs and tissues. Mid-America Transplant was the first such organization in the U.S. to use an in-house operating room for organ recovery and pioneered innovative models of increasing donor registry enrollment to provide organs and tissues to those in need. It is federally designated as one of 56 such organizations in the U.S. and is the first organ procurement organization (OPO) to be recognized as a recipient of the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award for Performance Excellence, and the only two-time recipient. For more information, visit MidAmericaTransplant.org.
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