If you haven’t gotten your temporary driver’s permit yet, one of the questions is whether or not you want to be an organ donor. You can donate blood, organs, and tissues in order to save lives when alive and gone.

Community Tissue Services is located in Kettering, Ohio and is responsible for extracting and shipping life-saving tissue and other vital surgical necessities. Hospitals from around the globe receive from them, especially when a national tragedy strikes and they are there to answer and ship immediately.

Graduate from the class of 2014, Monica Schwab, works for Community Tissue Services in the distribution department. She is the head of the department and oversees the other workers to make sure that the correct number of tissue, also known as skin grafts, are being shipped to wherever needed.

“We send out at least a thousand [skin grafts] a day,” Schwab stated. “They go all over the world. United States, Canada, Mexico, China, South Africa, honestly everywhere.” 

Community Tissue Services extracts and distributes surgical necessities such as bones and tendons needed for common surgeries of ligaments, tendons, or other life-enhancing surgeries. The most essential is the tissue. The tissue is life-saving and is needed for people to survive after a traumatic change to their tissue.

On the Community Tissue Services website, it says that their mission is, “Extraordinary people transforming ‘the gift’ to save and enhance lives.”

Schwab has worked at Community Tissue Services since June 2019, and has been able to ship for everyday needs for hospitals around the globe, but as well as national tragedies, and has saved many lives that way. 

One national tragedy Schwab helped ship to was when on Dec. 9, 2019, the Whakaari volcano in New Zealand erupted killing 22 people and many others with very severe burns and critical injuries.

Schwab stated, “We sent over 1,000 pieces of skin to help out. It was super urgent, and we had every single person in that building, even if they weren’t in distribution, pulling the grafts and trying to send out the tissue as fast as we could.”

Schwab went on to say that that event was one of the most heart-racing moments in the time she has worked there.

“[The job] can definitely be stressful without a doubt. There have been many times where I was getting ready to leave for the day, and we received a call about an urgent need for some tissue. I set down my bags and go ship them. Even with that, it is so rewarding. Knowing that I have helped save thousands of lives is what keeps me going,“ Schwab stated.

Even before you pass, you can help countless lives. Schwab and Community Tissue Services push the imperativeness of being an organ, tissue, and blood donor. Community Tissue Services focus on the tissue aspect but are connected with the organ and blood donation services.

RHS hosts a blood drive that comes to the school every couple of months, but here is a link for a drive at no cost, https://www.redcross.org/give-blood.html. If you already have your permit, you can sign up here for organ donation, for free: https://www.organdonor.gov/register.html