The state Capitol is bathed in orange light Monday night. The Capitol will be lit in orange for two weeks to commemorate April's organ donor month and the Monday launch of a new state Web site where people can register as organ donors.
MARTHA MALLON photo
The state Capitol was bathed in orange light Monday night and will remain so for two weeks to mark national organ donation month in April.
"Our initiative is trying to paint the state orange," the color of the organ donor sticker on Wisconsin driver's licenses, said Martha Mallon of the state Department of Health Services.
The colored Capitol also spotlights the state's new online registration for organ, tissue or eye donations, which was launched Monday.
Anyone older than 15½ with a driver's license or state identification card can use the Website www.YesIWillWisconsin.com
to give legal authorization to make donations when they die.
State officials say the move will increase the number of organ donors, and give health care professionals immediate access to people's donation decisions.
"Timing is very critical, especially in organ donation," Wisconsin First Lady Jessica Doyle said Monday.
She said there are currently about 1,500 people in the state on the national waiting list for transplants.
Wisconsin residents have been able to choose to be potential donors when they received or renewed their drivers' licenses for more than 20 years, but that didn't legally authorize donation.
Now it does.