Kenton County drivers exceeded the state average in supporting Trust for Life, a program to promote organ donation.

        Last year, 56 percent of Kenton County drivers gave $1 to Trust for Life when they renewed their driver's license or obtained a duplicate, said Berkeley Scott, the program's executive director. The state average was 42.2 percent.

        Boone County's average was 41.1 percent in 2001, a 10 percent increase over the previous year, while Campbell County's rate slipped from 34.9 percent to 33.3 percent.

        “When you're above one-third (participation), that's good,” Mr. Scott said. “In all three of those counties, we have clerks who are helping publicize the program.”

        Proceeds from the Trust for Life fund finance a year-round public awareness campaign to encourage Kentuckians to donate their organs and tissues so that others might live.

        Increasing public awareness about the need for organ donation is important because medical advances mean more people are being saved in hospitals who might have died in the past. That translates into a greater need for life-saving organs, Mr. Scott said.

        On Jan. 1 more than 570 people were on a waiting list at Kentucky's two transplant centers — the University of Kentucky Medical Center and Jewish Hospital in Louisville — for one or more organs, Mr. Scott said.

        Boone Circuit Court Clerk Pat Gutzeit said her county's increased participation in the Trust for Life program last year was largely due to the opening of a Florence branch office. With shorter lines, clerks had more time to discuss the program with motorists.

        Campbell Circuit Court Clerk Tom Calme did not know why his county's participation rate dropped. He said the clerk's offices in Newport and Alexandria carry an electronic reminder of the program as residents wait in line to renew their licenses.

        “If there's more publicity about the program and people know about it ahead of time, they tend to be more willing to donate,” Mr. Calme said.

        Last year, Kentucky circuit court clerks collected a total of $437,183 to pay for radio spots, TV commercials, newspaper ads, billboards, pamphlets and bumper stickers about organ donation. Since the trust was created in 1992, Kentucky's organ donation rate has increased by more than 35 percent, Mr. Scott said.

        Although Kentucky was one of the pioneers of a public awareness program for organ donation, other states — such as Ohio with its five-year-old Second Chance Trust Fund — have established similar campaigns.

        In Greater Cincinnati, 271 people are awaiting a life-saving organ transplant, said Mark Sommerville assistant director of the LifeCenter of Cincinnati. That center serves 16 Greater Cincinnati counties in southwestern Ohio, northern Kentucky and southeastern Indiana.

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