OLDS — Council has declared Thursday, April 7 to be Green Shirt Day in the town.
Council made that decision during its March 14 meeting after a presentation from community facilitator Heather Dixon and comments from community services director Doug Wagstaff.
The purpose of Green Shirt Day is to honour and remember all the victims and families involved in the Humboldt bus tragedy and continue legacy of Logan Boulet, one of the players who perished in that crash, who had an Olds connection and who inspired more than 100,000 Canadians to register as organ donors.
On April 6, 2018, 16 members of the Humboldt Broncos junior hockey team were killed and 13 injured when a bus carrying the team and a semi-trailer collided northwest of Saskatoon.
Logan Boulet, whose father and grandparents lived in Olds, was among the players injured in that crash. He died the next day.
Logan had previously told his parents he wanted his organs to be donated in the event of his death. That wish was honoured and six people benefited as a result.
His example inspired more than 100,000 Canadians to register as organ donors. That result has come to be known as the Logan Boulet Effect.
Wagstaff noted that according to the Canadian Transplant Association, nearly 90 per cent of Canadians say they would support organ donation but only 23 per cent have actually registered their intent to do so.
“So although donation rates have improved over the last 10 years, there’s more to be done. And the Green Shirt Day helps carry on the Logan Boulet Effect and encourages Canadians to sign up for organ donation,” he said.
Wagstaff also noted that “although we were unsuccessful” in 2019, Olds and Lethbridge councils combined on a resolution sent to Alberta Municipalities calling for any person’s organs to be available for donation to others after they die unless they specify otherwise.
As she made the motion to declare Green Shirt Day, Coun. Wanda Blatz remembered the Boulet grandchildren playing in Olds “so I think it’s really important that we share this.”
