ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Southeast Missouri Athletics is teaming up with Mid-America Transplant this weekend to raise awareness for Organ and Tissue donation at SEMO Baseball and SEMO Softball games in Cape Girardeau. The Redhawks baseball team will take on Morehead State for the 'Donate Life' Game on Friday before SEMO Softball will host Eastern Illinois on Saturday afternoon. 

 The Donate Life Games, held during National Donate Life Month, bring the community together to honor donor heroes, celebrate lives saved, and inspire fans to register and give the gift of life.
 
During their games on April 10 (baseball) and 11 (softball), players will swap out their red uniforms for blue and green ones, the national colors for organ and tissue donation.
 
The Donate Life baseball game will be held on Friday, April 10, at 6 p.m. at Capaha Field. Baseball tickets are $8 each at the SEMO Redhawks website or $10 at the game. Registered organ donors can show their ID to receive free admission. The Donate Life softball game begins at 1 p.m. on Saturday, April 11, and is free to attend at the Southeast Softball Complex.
 
"The Donate Life Games are a meaningful tradition for the SEMO Redhawks and a powerful way to rally our community around a lifesaving cause," said Nate Saverino, Senior Associate Athletic Director for External Operations. "Through these events, our student-athletes use their platform to encourage fans to say yes to donation and make a lasting impact beyond the game."
 
The Southeast community knows the impact of organ and tissue donation firsthand. Former Southeast 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 Southeast 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. In their remembrance, SEMO athletics hosts annual Donate Life baseball, softball, soccer, and basketball games to raise awareness of the legacy they left behind.
 
"We're grateful to SEMO for honoring the legacies of donor heroes and for helping spark important conversations about organ and tissue donation," 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 giving the gift of life."
 
In 2025, 126 people from Southeast Missouri made 26 lifesaving organ transplants possible, gave sight to 97 people, and healed more than 9,000 people through tissue donation. A donor memorial sits on Southeast's River Campus, serving as a place for families across the region to visit in remembrance of their loved ones, and for students and the community to be inspired to learn more about 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 2025, Mid-America Transplant facilitated 799 organ transplants from 280 donors. A total of 2,653 donors gave gifts of tissue to improve the quality of life for more than 199,000 people. In addition, 1,665 donors gave corneas to enable life-changing vision transplants.

 
To register as a donor, visit SayYesGiveLife.org. 
 
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 www.midamericatransplant.org.