Nord-Bridge celebrates Logan Boulet Effect with annual lunch

By Delon Shurtz - Lethbridge Herald on April 6, 2024.

Herald photo by Delon Shurtz Ashley Kern, right, along with Cindy Dykstra and Megan Gray, serve cake at the Nord-Bridge Seniors Centre in recognition of Green Shirt Day.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDdshurtz@lethbridgeherald.com

The colour green seems to be growing in popularity these days, even at the Nord-Bridge Seniors Centre where a number of people were wearing green t-shirts and eating green cake.

The recent lunch gathering was in celebration of the Logan Boulet Effect in support of organ donor awareness and registration across Canada.

On April 6, 2018, the Humboldt Broncos bus crash claimed the lives of 16 people, including defenceman Logan Boulet. To honor Boulet’s wishes, his parents, Bernadine and Toby Boulet, donated their son’s organs the following day, so that six strangers could live.

In honour of Logan’s legacy, April 7 was established as Green Shirt Day so people across Canada could remember the victims and families of the fatal crash and create awareness about organ and tissue donations.

“His act ended up saving six lives and inspired many Canadians to register as organ donors, later being named the Logan Boulet Effect,” Ashley Kern said during the annual Nord-Bridge 5th annual commemoration of Green Shirt Day.

Kern, Nord-Bridge’s program co-ordinator, says the event was created to help raise awareness of organ donations among the organization’s members.

“I think a lot of people think when they get older that it’s like, oh who would want my organ..but it still definitely helps out in the end for someone who might need it,” Kern said.

“Going back to the Logan Boulet Effect; of course that was really kind of what put all of this in motion. Since then we just kind of wanted to gain more awareness for our members about organ and tissue donations.”

Kern is particularly keen on increasing awareness because of the low rate of organ donations in the province.

“Alberta has a very dismal rate of people that are registering to be organ donors, and I think a lot of people will talk about it, but they won’t actually take action to register, to take that extra step.”

Kern hopes the annual celebration of Green Shirt Day at Nord-Bridge reminds members of the importance of organ donations and encourages them to go beyond just thinking about registering.

“If something like that happened to you and your family and someone needed an emergency organ or tissue, wouldn’t you think that would be really important to have it already set up so that you don’t have to worry about it in the future?

“And aside from the Logan Boulet Effect, I think just in general it’s really important to do because at the end of the day it helps save lives.”