Hundreds turned out to mark Green Shirt Day on April 6 at the SLS Centre.
The event commemorates the anniversary of the Humboldt, Saskatchewan bus crash tragedy, and is dedicated not only to that memory, but also to raising awareness of the importance of organ donation, which has also become known for the Logan Boulet Effect.
Boulet was a 21-year-old defenceman for the Humboldt Broncos, and one of 16 people killed in the tragic bus crash. He succumbed to his injuries on April 7, 2018. By donating his organs, he saved six lives.
By coming out to a game of shinny on Sunday, and wearing green, Cochranites showed their support for the importance of organ donation. Support which was very much appreciated by event organizer, and organ donor recipient, Michelle Hounslow.
“This is really all about the families and the kids,” she said. “Just getting kids out to play a little hockey like Logan did, and share the message of organ donation, and what registering to be an organ and tissue donor does and how it changes and saves lives.”
Fellow organ donation recipient Greg Hnatuk was out helping kids tape up their hockey sticks to play on the concrete of the SLS Centre parking lot under sunny skies.
“I had a kidney in 2011, and I come from a family of 10 children,” Hnatuk said. “Five of us will require kidney transplants. Three already have had kidney transplants, and two more are waiting … (This event) is about helping people understand the need for organ donation, and then encouraging them to talk to their families. That’s the most important piece in all this: to let your wishes be known.”
Hnatuk said there isn’t a day that goes by where he doesn’t feel gratitude to his donor and their family.
“I think of them very often. How they turned the pain in their family into a gift, and I am just eternally grateful for them.”
On the other side of the life and death calculus are the families who carry out their loved ones' wishes to become organ donors. The Jensen family hosts a yearly golf tournament in Cochrane at the Links of GlenEagles to remember their dad and husband, Bill Jensen, who became an organ donor after his tragic death in France in 2023.
“He was always such a selfless person, but going through what we did, losing him, it brought us a lot of solace to know he was helping people even in his passing,” recalled Xander Jensen.
“I know (Dad would) be proud of what we did with the golf fundraiser and events like this,” added Xander’s brother Mitchell. “He would have a massive smile on his face … To have an event that tips its hat to people like him who can help other people is huge.”
Katherine Jensen said her husband's sudden passing left a void which can never be filled, but the fact he saved so many lives at his passing is of great comfort to her family.
“I know he would be so proud of everything they have done,” she said. “It makes all the difference to know he made a difference, and continues to make a difference … Mitchell’s wife said it so beautifully when we were in Paris that night (he died): ‘Our worst day is so many other people’s best day.’ That stays with us. That is the silver lining in all of this.”
The Bill Jensen Memorial Golf Fundraiser takes place on August 23.
