Quilt honors organ donors

Pittsburgh Post Gazette | Annie Seibert

After Lisa Carnahan's 3-year-old son received a donor liver nearly two decades ago, she started volunteering for the Center for Organ Recovery and Education.

Shane Carnahan is now 23, has finished college and works as a graphic designer. All along, Ms. Carnahan has been working as both a volunteer and an employee with CORE to publicize the importance of organ donation, doing public appearances and speaking in hospitals.

After seeing quilt squares created by the families of organ donors at a U.S. Transplant Games event, Ms. Carnahan, who grew up sewing and doing crafts, decided to make a quilt memorializing organ donors.

"It sort of just started there with a small project and ballooned from that," she said.

Family members of organ donors create the fabric squares and give them to Ms. Carnahan, who then fashions them into a quilt. She made her first quilts in 2007 and was averaging two or three quilts a year. Last year, though, she made six, and she believes she's making more quilts because of increased awareness of organ donation.

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