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The Incredible Healing Power of Pets
By Bob Aronson
There’s something about petting a dog or having a cat nestle in your lap that brings one a certain serenity or at least a warm feeling. It’s been shown medically that the company of a pet can bring blood pressure down, lessen depression, calm frayed nerves and even help to settle an upset stomach.
Is there anything cuter than a puppy or kitten? Even at their destructive worst they are cute. When we got Reilly, our Soft Coated Wheaten Terrier as a puppy she loved to shred paper and those razor sharp puppy teeth can do that in a split second.
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Look at this mess. She had gotten a hold of some toilet paper and made a mess of our living room, there were shreds of paper everywhere. And…when we found her amidst that pile of blowing and drifting tissue, she looked up and wagged her tail, proud of her accomplishment and willing to destroy even more if it would please us. Look at this picture, how could you possibly do anything but laugh upon seeing this mess.
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Besides the laughs, the warm fuzzy feelings and the love what can pets do for you? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the company of a pet can help people who are living with depression. Why is that? I think it’s because they ask for very little and 
give unlimited affection and companionship. Maybe it’s because cats, dogs and other companion creatures offer unlimited affection and nonjudgmental companionship. They lift our spirits and lower our stress. They counteract symptoms such as isolation, rumination and lethargy. Even just looking at our two dogs Reilly and Ziggy (mini schnauzer) and how much they like each other gives one a warm all over feeling.
People who study human behavior tell us that caring for animals is an ego boost, a shot in the self-esteem department that gives people a sense of purpose, of being needed and necessary. Knowing that another living being depends on us for sustenance and protection gives our self-worth a good shot in the arm.
According to a 2009 study published in the American Journal of Orthopsychiatry.Jennifer P. Wisdom, PhD, an associate professor of clinical psychology at Columbia University Medical Center and several of her colleagues surveyed 177 nearly 200 patients with varying degrees of mental illness to determine how the recovery process works. The study concluded that besides offering the boost in self-worth, Pets can serve as either substitute or additional family members. Yes, family. If you’ve ever had a pet you know that you consider them family— because they are.
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For some people the only love in their lives is the love shared between them and 
their companion animals. Now, I don’t know who invented the term companion animal but it is perfect because they are more than possessions, they are friends, companions, confidants and you could even say, therapists. If you can find a single human being who is a better listener that your dog or cat or bird or whatever I’ll buy you lunch. They never object, they don’t interrupt they just listen very carefully and wag their tails or curl up close to you. Their affection washes over you like a hot shower after a long run and all the troubles of the day run into the drain.
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Our dogs are happy to see us at least a dozen times a day. If I leave to go the store, I get a reception when I come home that is as though I had been gone for a year. I get the same reception if I go to the mail box and come back in a minute later. Open the door and Ziggy is running in circles with joy and Reilly is licking my hand. They are always glad to see me and you know there is nothing phony about it…they really are glad to see you every time they see you.
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Here’s a classic video…it’s a must see and it’s short. A soldier returns from a tour of duty in Afghanistan and the first one to greet him is his dog. This will bring tears to your eyes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysKAVyXi0J4
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Not only are pets good for your mental health, they can be of immeasurable assistance in maintaining your physical health as well. Dogs need to be walked and that means you need to walk with them. You may not think of it this way but your dog is helping you 
get exercise you might not get otherwise. Every medical study done on the value of exercise says the same thing, even a casual walk is good for you. You don’t have to sprint or run or jog, just walk with Fido and you are getting a health benefit. I haven’t seen any studies on the matter but I’ll bet that dog owners walk more than people who don’t have them. And…I’ve read that people who have pets, or companion animals also have lower blood pressure and decreased cortisol…that’s the stuff that causes stress.
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Most nursing homes or extended care facilities allow visits from animals. When my mom was in a nursing home we used to bring our terrier/Chihuahua mixed dog Lady with us. Mom loved seeing her and lady, who could be a cranky little dog, loved seeing mom. I think they both loved all the attention they got. Other nursing home residents always stopped and wanted to pet Lady. One little 12 pound dog could make a whole nursing home happy at least for a few minutes.
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“Okay,” you say, “I’ll buy all the benefits of having a pet but I can’t. I’m not home much, I travel a lot, I just can’t care for one.” Well, you can benefit from animals anyway. Alan Beck who is the Director of the Center for Human-Animal Bonding at Purdue University suggests the following:
Visit a zoo. Farms that open their barns to visitors and even petting zoos can also be an entrée into the animal world.
- Put up a birdfeeder in your backyard or outside your apartment window. You could also get out to a park to enjoy birds, chipmunks and other critters in their natural setting.
- Set up a home aquarium. It may take a little work to get the pH levels balanced, but an established fish tank is fairly easy to maintain.
- Walk a friend’s dog. You could also offer to pet-sit for dogs, cats, fish and so forth when friends and family members go on vacation, but be sure you’re ready to take on the responsibility.
- Volunteer at an animal shelter. This is a win-win-win. The shelter gets extra hands to groom, play with or clean up after their charges; you get the feel-good effects of being around animals, and the abandoned pets benefit from your attention.
If none of that appeals to you how about a good movie. One that tugs at your heart strings and makes you feel good. Try any one of these.
1. Beethoven
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This giant but adorable St. Bernard’s real name was Chris.
2. Buddy
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Buddy — from the “Air Bud” movies — was his real name, and he also played Comet in Full House!
3. Marley
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Marley, of “Marley and Me” was played by 18 different dogs. All really freaking cute.
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You can find more great “Feel good” dog movies at http://www.buzzfeed.com/lyapalater/30-of-the-greatest-movie-dogs
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Please comment in the space provided or email your thoughts to me at bob@baronson.org. And – spread the word about the immediate need for more organ donors. On-line registration can be done at www.donatelife.net Whenever you can, help people formally register. There is nothing you can do that is of greater importance. If you convince one person to be a donor you may save or positively affect over 60 lives. Some of those lives may be people you know and love.
You are also invited to join Facebook’s Organ Transplantation Initiative (OTI) a 3,500 member group dedicated to providing help and information to donors, donor families, transplant patients and families, caregivers and all other interested parties. Your participation is important if we are to influence decision makers to support efforts to increase organ donation and support organ regeneration, replacement and research efforts.
Bob Aronson is a 2007 heart transplant recipient, the founder and primary author of the blogs on this site and the founder of Facebook’s Organ Transplant Initiative group.
Now retired and living in Jacksonville, Florida with his wife Robin he spends his time advocating for patients with end stage diseases and for organ recipients. He is also active in helping his wife with her art business at art festivals and on her Rockin Robin Prints site on Etsy.
Bob is a former journalist, Governor’s Communication Director and international communications consultant.
The Ultimate Hypocrisy — Government Profiting on Killer Tobacco
Bob’s Newheart and our Facebook group Organ Transplant Initiative (OTI) support and encourage organ donation and potential biological and mechanical alternatives we also believe that the best solution for the organ shortage is to reduce the demand.
Tobacco products along with alcohol are two of the greatest contributors to organ damage and the need for transplants. If we could get people to stop using those substances the demand for transplants would diminish significantly and that could mean that the supply of organs just might catch up to the reduced demand.
The affect of tobacco products on human organs is devastating. There is almost no part of our bodies that the thousands of chemicals in tobacco and cigarette smoke can’t invade and ultimately destroy. If you smoke, it likely will kill you! If you quit your body will begin to recover and the cancers and other diseases will have to find a different host.
Our governments (city, county, state and federal) all tax tobacco often with the intention of using the revenue to finance stop smoking campaigns and most often some of the money collected is used for that purpose but not always. As is usually the case when there is a pot of money available, lots of good causes want some of it, sometimes not so good causes get it so less than 3% of tobacco tax dollars go into anti smoking or smoking cessation programs. Furthermore, settlements in and out of court in the 1990s mean that the tobacco industry is paying states nearly $250 billion over 25 years. Under the agreement, those payments to states will continue flowing even beyond 25 years as long as the tobacco industry is healthy. But the payments would phase out as cigarette company profits decline and would ultimately disappear if people stop smoking. So while government must try to get people to quit smoking, they really don’t want to try too hard.
So, having given you some critical information about smoking I’m hoping you will do two things, 1) if you smoke…quit. 2) tell your elected officials to get really serious about helping people who use tobacco products to quit using them, I submit this post for your consideration and comment.
There’s an adage that goes, ”If you borrow a hundred dollars from the bank, you owe the bank. If you borrow a million you own the bank.” That simply means the bank can’t be too hard on you if they want to get their money back. That’s the situation governments find themselves in with tobacco. In a strange twist, tobacco companies own the government. Let me explain.
Tobacco Kills. Cigarettes alone kill nearly a half million Americans every year. That’s just a cold hard fact. You probably don’t need reminding but I will anyway via the enters for Disease Control in Atlanta, Georgia. They list these facts: http://tinyurl.com/lblldw
- The adverse health effects from cigarette smoking account for an estimated 443,000 deaths, or nearly one of every five deaths, each year in the United States.
- More deaths are caused each year by tobacco use than by all deaths from human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), illegal drug use, alcohol use, motor vehicle injuries, suicides, and murders combined.
- Smoking causes an estimated 90% of all lung cancer deaths in men and 80% of all lung cancer deaths in women.
- An estimated 90% of all deaths from chronic obstructive lung disease are caused by smoking.
Smoking and Increased Health Risks
Compared with nonsmokers, smoking is estimated to increase the risk of—
- coronary heart disease by 2 to 4 times,
- stroke by 2 to 4 times,
- men developing lung cancer by 23 times,
- women developing lung cancer by 13 times, and
- dying from chronic obstructive lung diseases (such as chronic bronchitis and emphysema) by 12 to 13 times.
If trends continue, one billion people will die from tobacco use and exposure during the 21st century – one person every six seconds. Globally, tobacco-related deaths have nearly tripled in the past decade, and tobacco is responsible for more than 15% of all male deaths and 7% of female deaths. Tobacco is also a risk factor for the four leading noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) – cancer, heart disease, diabetes and chronic respiratory diseases – which account for more than 63% of global deaths according to the World Health Organization.
Tobacco use is the number one killer in China, causing 1.2 million deaths annually; this is expected to rise to 3.5 million deaths annually by the year 2030. Tobacco is also responsible for the greatest proportion of male deaths in Turkey (38%) and Kazakhstan (35%), and the greatest proportion of female deaths in the Maldives (25%) and the United States (23%).
Uniquely among cancer-causing agents, however, tobacco is a man-made problem that is completely preventable through proven public policies. Effective measures include tobacco taxes, advertising bans, smoke-free public places, mass media campaigns and effective health warnings. These cost-effective policies are among those included in the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (WHO FCTC), a global treaty endorsed by more than 174 countries, and recommended by the World Health Organization in its MPOWER policy package. http://tinyurl.com/bor7897
Our government knows all of this. All of our elected officials know this and they all publicly support anti-smoking efforts. They go to great extremes to condemn the use of tobacco while explaining the public health consequences. Almost no one is pro smoking and yet everyone is pro smoking because we have come to depend on the billions of tax dollars generated by the sale of tobacco products. It should be pointed out that at least the U.S,. Government no longer subsidizes tobacco farmers. That program ended several years ago.
As usual the poor are hit the hardest by the addictive nature of tobacco. In a study conducted on behalf of the New York State Department of Health, it revealed that low-income smokers (those in households making under $30,000), spent an average of 23.6% of their annual household income on cigarettes, compared to 2.2% for smokers in households making over $60,000.
Taxes on tobacco products total billions of dollars a year. An example — in New York state the federal tax on a package of 20 cigarettes is $1.01, the state tax is $4.35. New York City adds a local tax of $1.50 to the state levy. That brings the combined tax rate on a package of 20 cigarettes in New York City to $6.36. Tobacco manufacturers add their profit on top of that so depending on where you buy your cigarettes in the city you could pay as much as $12 a pack…twelve dollars for a pack of cigarettes. By comparison, when I started smoking in 1954 you could buy a pack of “Wings” cigarettes for Ten cents. Major brands like Lucky Strikes or Camels were a quarter (quit smoking in 1991).
Tobacco Industry Profits Greater Than Ever
According to The Tobacco Atlas, estimates of revenues from the global tobacco industry likely approach a half trillion U.S. dollars annually. In 2010, the combined profits of the six leading tobacco companies was U.S. $35.1 billion, equal to the combined profits of Coca-Cola, Microsoft, and McDonald’s in the same year. If Big Tobacco were a country, it would have a gross domestic product (GDP) of countries like Poland, Saudi Arabia, Sweden and Venezuela.
In the meantime, tobacco companies are fighting laws with every weapon in their arsenal because just as their product kills people, restrictive smoking laws can kill the industry, a killing some say, is necessary and justified homicide.
As countries around the world ramp up their campaigns against smoking with tough restrictions on tobacco advertising, the industry is fighting back by invoking international trade agreements to thwart the most stringent rules.
A key battlefront is Australia, which is trying to repel a legal assault on its groundbreaking law requiring cigarettes to be sold in plain packs without distinctive brand logos or colors. Contesting the law, which takes effect Dec. 1, are the top multinational cigarette makers and three countries — Ukraine, Honduras and Dominican Republic — whose legal fees are being paid by the industry. http://tinyurl.com/chypao4
Tobacco use has diminished considerably in most of the developed countries but not all of them. The leafy crop is gaining new popularity among U.S. farmers. Cheaper U.S. tobacco has become competitive as an export, and China, Russia and Mexico, where cigarette sales continue to grow, are eager to buy. Since 2005, U.S. tobacco acreage has risen 20 percent. Fields are now filled with it in places like southern Illinois, which hasn’t grown any substantial amounts since the end of World War I. http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1899911/posts
While the price of cigarettes has continuously increased since 1965, the percentage of that price going towards taxes is now half of what it was then. ]While tobacco companies complain about the $1.01 cigarette tax, Phillip Morris, Reynolds American, and Lorillard have all increased their prices by almost $1.00 per pack on their own. Phillip Morris currently lists all taxes, including federal, state, local, and sales taxes, as 56.6% of the total cost of a pack of cigarettes.
One of the reasons for the support of increased cigarette taxes among public health officials is that many studies show that this leads to a decrease in smoking rates. The relationship between smoking rates and cigarette taxes is in fact very elastic; the greater the amount of the tax increase, the greater the proportion of smokers who stop smoking. This is especially prevalent amongst teenagers. For every ten percent increase in the price of a pack of cigarettes, youth smoking rates overall drop about seven percent. This rate is also true amongst minorities and low income population smokers. The rates of calls to quitting hot-lines are directly related to cigarette tax hikes. When Wisconsin raised its state cigarette tax to $1.00 per pack, the hot-line received a record of 20,000 calls in a two month time period versus its typical 9,000 calls annually.
According to the New York Times taxes are not the only government revenue from cigarettes. Settlements in the late 1990s to end state lawsuits against tobacco companies mean that the cigarette industry is paying states nearly $250 billion over 25 years. Under the agreement, those payments to states will continue flowing even beyond 25 years as long as the tobacco industry is healthy. But the payments would phase out as cigarette company profits decline and would ultimately disappear if people stop smoking.
So the government has become a financial stakeholder in smoking, some would argue, even as public health officials warn people about its deadly consequences. Smoking declines as cigarette taxes increase, but a core group of smokers hang on to the habit. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/31/weekinreview/31saul.html
Will the government or governments ever really crack down on smoking? Doubtful, there is too much money in it for them so the tobacco companies and the politicians who seek to eradicate them have come to be bedfellows. What many politicians fail to see is the savings that could be had if people didn’t smoke. According to the CDC again, “Smoking is also a major contributor to many chronic diseases that are driving up the nation’s health care costs. Each year, diseases caused by cigarette smoking result in $96 billion in health care costs, much of which is paid by taxpayers through publicly-funded health programs.” http://www.cdc.gov/features/TobaccoControlData/ but the savings go beyond that when you consider the costs to employers and employees in higher premiums and lost work time due to tobacco caused illnesses.
If we truly wanted to wipe out smoking, taxes could be raised even higher than they are and the dollars generated could go a long way toward helping to solve our budget problems. Unfortunately if everyone quit smoking, the tax revenue would disappear, too and therein lies the dilemma, but it does prove that you can be both for and against something at the same time.
76 Inspirational Quotes to Help Make Your Day Better*
Being a pre or post transplant patient a donor or donor family or a caregiver can be very difficult. Sometimes just a good word or two can make the difference between a good and a bad day. With that in mind I thought that perhaps somewhere in this list of 76 quotes, there is a thought that will help make your day be a better one.
1. Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself – George Bernard Shaw.
2. Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore, dream, discover….Mark Twain.
3. Don’t judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds you plant – Robert Louis Stevenson.
4. We don’t see things the way they are. We see them the way WE are – Talmud.
5. I have found that if you love life, life will love you back – Arthur Rubinstein.
6. The reason people find it so hard to be happy is that they always see the past better than it was, the present worse than it is, and the future less resolved than it will be – Marcel Pagnol.
7. A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step – Lao Tzu.
8. Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive and go do it. Because what the world needs is more people who have come alive – Howard Thurman.
9. All life is an experiment. The more experiments you make, the better – Ralph Waldo Emerson.
10. Too many people spend money they haven’t earned, to buy things they don’t want, to impress people they don’t like – Will Rogers.
11. I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been – Wayne Gretzky.
12. Pain is inevitable. Suffering is optional – Anony-mouse.
13. Every man dies. Not every man really lives – William Ross Wallace.
14. Life isn’t a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways, chocolate in one hand, latte in the other, body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming ‘Woohoo WHAT A RIDE’!
15. There are two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle – Albert Einstein.
16. Uncertainty is the only certainty there is, and knowing how to live with insecurity is the only security – John Allen Paulos.
17. You are not in this world to live up to other people’s expectations, nor should you feel the world must live up to yours – F Perl.
18. How you do one thing, is how you do everything. Be aware.
19. Life is either a daring adventure or nothing – Helen Keller.
20. Life is not about kissing a**, it’s about kicking a**!
21. The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it – Henry David Thoreau.
22. Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one’s definition of your life; define yourself – Harvey Fierstein.
23. Be more concerned with your character than your reputation, because your character is what you really are, while your reputation is merely what others think you are – John Wooden.
24. In the end, it’s not going to matter howmany breathsyou took, but how many moments took your breath away – Shing Xiong.
25. Dance like the photo’s not being tagged. Love like you’ve never been unfriended. Sing like nobody’s following. Share like you care. And do it all like it won’t end up on youtube!
26. The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and let it come in – Morrie Schwartz.
27. You cannot be lonely if you like the person you’re alone with – Dr. Wayne Dyer.
28. Happiness is like a butterfly.
The more you chase it, the more it eludes you.
But if you turn your attention to other things,
It comes and sits softly on your shoulder.
– Henry David Thoreau
29. I think everyone should be told they’re beautiful until they believe it – Unknown
30. People were created to be loved. Things were created to be used. The reason the world is in chaos, is because things are being loved, and people are being used.
31. Dear Heart, fall in love only when you’re ready, not when you’re lonely – Anony-mouse.
32. ”It’s impossible” said pride. “It’s risky” said experience. “It’s pointless” said reason. “Give it a try” whispered the heart – Anonymous
33. To love oneself is the beginning of a lifelong romance – Oscar Wilde.
34. Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage – Lao Tzu.
35. When in doubt, choose Love.
36. Your task is not to seek love, but to seek and find all the barriers within yourself that you have built against it – Rumi.
37. Happiness always sneaks in a door you did not think was open – Anony-mouse.
38. Bitterness is like cancer. It eats upon the host. But anger is like fire. It burns it all clean – Maya Angelou.
39. Be happy while you’re living, for you’re a long time dead – Scottish Proverb.
40. The minute I heard my first love story, I started looking for you, not knowing how blind that was. Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere. They’re in each other all along – Rumi.
41. Being happy doesn’t mean that everything is perfect. It means that you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.
42. Whoever said money can’t buy happiness didn’t know where to shop – Gertrude Stein.
43. The appearance of things change according to the emotions and thus we see magic and beauty in them, while the magic and beauty really are in ourselves – Kahlil Gibran.
44. You’re at the zoo, you have a popsicle, how can you be unhappy? – Dewey, Malcolm in the Middle.
45. Find the guy who calls you beautiful instead of hot, who calls you back when you hang up on him, who will lie under the stars and listen to your heartbeat, or stay awake just to watch you sleep. The one who turns to his friends and says, “thats her” – Anony-mouse.
46. Don’t worry. Be happy.
47. Self-worth comes from one thing – thinking that you are worthy.
48. Be helpful. When you see a person without a smile, give them yours – Zig Ziglar.
49. My life has no purpos, no direction, no aim, no meaning, and yet I’m happy. I can’t figure it out. What am I doing right? – Charles Schultz (probably # 50!).
50. Happiness is a choice. Choose happy.
51. If you’re going through hell, keep going – Winston Churchill.
52. Feelings come and feelings go. There is no need to fear them and no need to crave them. Let them come, and then let them go. No feeling is your permanent reality, no matter how intense it is.
53. No matter what, no matter how, where or who – you can almost always turn around and get a second chance – Anony-mouse.
54. When one door closes, another opens; but we often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the one which has opened for us – Alexander Graham Bell.
http://www.andrewmitchellphotography.tumblr.com
55. The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the unreasonable man – George B Shaw.
56. You cannot solve a problem with the same mind that created it – Albert Einstein.
57. Do or Do Not. There is no Try – Yoda.
58. We must let go of the life we had planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us – Joseph Campbell.
59. You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face – Eleanor Roosevelt.
60. When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves – Viktor Frankl.
61. Change is inevitable. Progress is optional – Tony Robbins.
62. Be smart enough to hold on, be brave enough to let go. Sometimes, we need to hold onto faith while letting go of the outcome. Open your hand and hold your dreams gently, don’t try to grab them.
63. If you are irritated by every rub, how will you be polished? – Rumi
64. If there is anything that we wish to change in the child, we should first examine it and see whether it is not something that could better be changed in ourselves – Carl Jung.
65. I’ve developed a new philosophy. I only dread one day at a time – Charlie Brown
66. Even if you’re on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there – Will Rogers.
67. The great thing in the world is not so much where we stand, as in what direction we are moving – Oliver W Holmes.
68. The harder you fall, the higher you bounce – Unknown.
69. I may not have gone where I intended to go, but I think I’ve ended up where I needed to be – Douglas Adams.
70. The best way to predict the future is to create it.
71. People will hate you, rate you, shake you, and break you. But how strong you stand is what makes you – Unknown.
72. We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand – Randy Pausch.
73. You’ve got to do your own growing, no matter how tall your grandfather was – Irish proverb.
74. You are who you are and what you are because of what has gone into your mind. You can change who you are and what you are by changing what goes into your mind – Zig Ziglar
75. Whether you believe you can do a thing or not, you are right – Henry Ford.
76. God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference – Reinhold Niebuhr. (The Serenity Prayer rocks!)
WANT MORE? GO TO https://bobsnewheart.wordpress.com/2013/08/01/half-a-hundred-quotes-on-hope-inspiration-love-and-living/
The entire list with great poster-like illustrations can be found at http://www.yourlifeyourway.net/2011/09/06/75-best-kickass-inspirational-quotes-on-life-love-happiness-change-growth/
Bob Aronson of Bob’s Newheart is a 2007 heart transplant recipient, the founder of Facebook’s nearly 2,500 member Organ Transplant Initiative and the author of most of these donation/transplantation blogs.
You may comment in the space provided or email your thoughts to me at bob@baronson.org. And – please spread the word about the immediate need for more organ donors. There is nothing you can do that is of greater importance. If you convince one person to be an organ and tissue donor you may save or positively affect over 60 lives. Some of those lives may be people you know and love.
Please view our video “Thank You From the Bottom of my Donor’s heart” on http://www.organti.org This video was produced to promote organ donation so it is free and no permission is needed for its use.
If you want to spread the word personally about organ donation, we have another PowerPoint slide show for your use free and without permission. Just go to http://www.organti.org and click on “Life Pass It On” on the left side of the screen and then just follow the directions. This is NOT a stand-alone show; it needs a presenter but is professionally produced and factually sound. If you decide to use the show I will send you a free copy of my e-book, “How to Get a Standing “O” that will help you with presentation skills. Just write to bob@baronson.org and usually you will get a copy the same day.
Also…there is more information on this blog site about other donation/transplantation issues. Additionally we would love to have you join our Facebook group, Organ Transplant Initiative The more members we get the greater our clout with decision makers.
Bob's NewHeart 
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