NJ Sharing Network has a campaign this month to promote organ and tissue donation awareness by highlighting the 4,000 New Jersey residents who are on a waiting list for a life-saving transplant.

Vice President and Chief Administrative Officer Elisse Glennon said the campaign is called SaveNJLives. It's a partnership with pizzerias, coffee shops, restaurants and hospitals that will promote the patient waiting list and encourage people to go to the website, www.savenjlives.com and find out how many people are waiting in their town for a transplant.

"From there, you can register to be an organ donor, you can sign up to be a volunteer and an advocate for organ donation, you can sign up to make a contribution," said Glennon.

Glennon said pizzerias in the New Jersey towns with the highest number of residents on the waiting list — including Newark, East Orange, Irvington, Clifton, Paterson, Rutherford, Plainfield — will distribute 15,000 custom designed boxes.

She said the pizza boxes were created by the McCann agency, which wanted to donate its services to the NJ Sharing Network.

Each pizza box has an artistic map of New Jersey with the message "this pizza box can help save a life." It directs a person to NJ Sharing Network's website where a person can find out how many people are waiting in a specific town for a transplant.

Besides pizzerias, similar information and the map is being offered on 250,000 #SAVENJLIVES branded coffee cup sleeves at coffee shops, bagel shops, restaurants and over 50 NJ Sharing Network's hospital partners throughout central and northern New Jersey.

Glennon said part of the message of this campaign is while a person is enjoying a slice of pizza or a cup of coffee with family and friends, have a conversation about organ donation and what a person's wishes may be.

She asked that if a person receives one of these specially designed coffee sleeves or pizza boxes, put #SAVENJLIVES on Facebook, take a picture with the sleeve or box and keep spreading the word about the 4,000 New Jerseyans on the organ transplant waiting list.

More than 130 pizzerias, coffee shops and hospitals are participating in the campaign. To view a full list, please visit, www.SaveNJLives.com.

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