COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — April is Donate Life month, and Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center celebrated the gift of organ donation Sunday morning with their 16th annual Buckeye Pinwheel Planting and Transplant Reunion.

The pinwheels have one stem and eight spokes, symbolizing how one person can save up to eight lives through organ donation.

The hospital’s front lawn was filled with 12,500 pinwheels — one for each organ transplant performed at the Wexner Medical Center since 1967. One of those pinwheels represented kidney recipient Steve Robison.

Steve and his brother Mike Robison spoke to NBC4 in November, right before the big Ohio State-Michigan game. Mike has always been a die-hard Buckeyes fan while Steve grew up cheering for the team up north.

Mike made the selfless decision to donate one of his kidneys to his brother Steve, who had kidney disease.

“I’m so much better after receiving the kidney, and it’s just done wonders for my lifestyle,” said Steve, who received his new kidney from his brother in December. “I am functioning as well as I ever have been before.”

Steve said his operation went well and Mike, who traveled to Columbus from Arizona for the donation, is functioning great with one kidney.

“He just initially amazed me, you could’ve knocked me over with a feather, but that’s what brothers do for each other. That’s what family does for each other,” Steve said. “It’s the unwritten rules of love.”

This is the 16th year thousands of pinwheels have been on display in front of the hospital. Dr. Ken Washburn, the director of the Wexner Medical Center’s transplant center, said seeing the people his team saved is extremely rewarding.

“To the recipients I say, ‘Thank your donor.’ To the donors I say, ‘Thank you,’” said Dr. Washburn.

This was Steve’s first year at the pinwheel planting, and he said it is surreal to see how many lives organ donation has touched just here in central Ohio.

“It’s just an amazing showing of how many people not only receive organs on a yearly basis, but the number of donors who are willing to give the gift of life,” said Steve.

The pinwheels will stay planted in the ground throughout the rest of April.