Springville beats Guinness organ donor record

SPRINGVILLE — Red Devils turned into angels Saturday when they beat the Guinness world record for the most people signed up in a single day as organ donors. A group in Thailand held the record at 562. The Springville youths wanted to register 600 but stopped at 765, according to a preliminary count, said Gaye Lynn Jacobsen, a volunteer organ donor registrar.

To beat the world record, the new registrants had to be age 18 or older. They also signed up 259 people under age 18 who were not Springville High students and 267 who were Springville High students in an attempt to get 80 percent of the school population registered, which has never been done in Utah.

Senior class secretary Nicole Myers organized the "Brandon Curtis #30 Make a Difference Day" in memory of Curtis, who died July 28 in an SUV rollover in the high school parking lot. A senior at the high school, Curtis played on the Red Devils football team and wore jersey number 30. He was also an organ donor.

"My mom and I put in over 100 hours," Myers said.

They began planning the service project in early August, including setting up ways to earn at least $5,000 for a new scholarship in Curtis' name. The event included baking and other food booths and a carnival atmosphere with the proceeds going to the scholarship fund.

Myers started pulling the community together at the high school, including a group of Curtis' friends who call themselves "Closer Than Brothers."

About a dozen female students, including Shane Curtis, 16, Brandon Curtis' sister; Hailey Johnson, 16; and Kasha Bandmann, passed out fliers at the school's welcome assembly declaring that if the boys didn't show up to register they could forget about dates for at least six months. Not only that, said the girls, the spring prom would be canceled if the school didn't hit the 80 percent mark. Because they didn't hit the mark initially, that is now in question.

Mapleton Mayor Brian Wall, a printer, donated the fliers and a series of posters for the school but noted that much of the communication was through texting and social network websites.

"These kids are so well connected," he said.

Curtis' parents, Dianne and Jesse Curtis, also credited David Nemelka of Mapleton with pulling the event together. Nemelka operates Quest for the Gift of Life Foundation, which works to officially register organ donors. He teamed up with the Utah Organ Donor Coalition.

"It's amazing that out of tragedy good things can happen," Dianne Curtis said.