April 2, 2025
COLUMBUS, Ohio – The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center Comprehensive Transplant Center will host its 17th annual Buckeye Pinwheel Planting and Transplant Reunion to honor organ transplant recipients and their donors.
What: 17th annual Buckeye Pinwheel Planting and Transplant Reunion
When: Sunday, April 13 at 10 a.m.
Where: The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Medical Center Plaza
410 W. 10th Ave.
Details: The Buckeye Pinwheel Planting and Transplant Reunion celebrates the gift of organ donation and its ability to transform lives. The annual event honors former transplant patients, deceased organ donors, and living kidney and living liver donors. There will be inspirational stories of the impact of organ donation and transplantation. Attendees will plant 13,200 red and silver pinwheels. Each pinwheel represents an organ transplant performed at Ohio State Wexner Medical Center since its first organ transplant, a kidney, in 1967. With eight spokes supported by one stem, the pinwheel symbolizes the power of one person to save up to eight lives through organ donation and transplantation. The pinwheels will be on display throughout April, which is national Donate Life Month.
Approximately 115,300 Americans are waiting for a lifesaving transplant. In 2024, the Comprehensive Transplant Center performed 603 transplants, and it is ranked 15th nationally for overall organ volume in the United States. Additionally, Ohio State transplant care teams across all organ systems managed 17,170 patient visits to the transplant center.
Dr. Kenneth Washburn, executive director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center, will be available for interviews at 10:30 a.m. Parking is available in the SAFEAUTO garage.
Media representatives are asked to email Serena Smith at serena.smith@osumc.edu to make arrangements for event coverage.
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Media Contact: Serena Smith, Wexner Medical Center Media Relations, Serena.Smith@osumc.edu