Category Archives: News & Events

Navigating the Ongoing Challenges of the COVID-19 Pandemic

June 25, 2020 Emily Eaton

A quick update on our return to business and how COVID-19 is impacting the way we carry out our mission:

A Message Regarding COVID-19

March 27, 2020 Emily Eaton

Southern Eye Bank has served south Louisiana for over 70 years and in this challenging time, let us all reflect that our communities have always worked together to support each other. Whether hurricanes, floods, disease, or grief, together we can and do accomplish miracles.

Last year 686 families said yes to eye donation.
They shared the gift of sight with 974 recipients and
326 donations were made to research.

To keep our families, recipients and communities safe:

Southern Eye Bank continues to monitor and adhere to both the federal and local government suggested preventative actions that include suspending all travel to work related conferences, providing remote work options when possible this would include or referral coordinators, recovery, processing and distribution staff. Our focus is to continue to honor donor’s wishes and protect the recipient as we navigate through this time.

Southern Eye Bank continues to follow the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) standard safety precautions to protect both the technicians and the tissue that is recovered and processed for the recipient. Our referral coordinators continue to be vigilant in screening for diagnosed or possible COVID-19 in accordance with expanding federal guidelines and the Eye Bank Association of America (EBAA). We have refined our donor criteria to help with both the screening process and limiting the amount of tissue we recover.

We anticipate this refinement will not disrupt our quality of services we provide but do recognize that some of our services may be limited during this time. The administrative team and I will continue to monitor state and federal guidance, meet with our medical directors and adjust our operations accordingly as COVID-19 develops.

We have asked all staff to continue to be conscious of the areas they can control which would be performing hand washing on a regular basis, cover their cough and practice social distancing. Staff has been made aware that if they begin to show any signs or symptoms to self-isolate to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. We have asked non-essential staff to work from home and for those that are needed to come into the eye bank that they limit their time and interaction with others.

Thank you,

Kyle Mavin, BS, CEBT
Interim Executive Director
Southern Eye Bank

News & Events

Virtual Butterfly Garden Donor Memorial

March 19, 2020 Emily Eaton

Thank you to everyone who submitted to our virtual butterfly garden! We’re proud to help honor your donor heroes.

The virtual butterfly garden was created in April 2020 as an alternate way to honor loved ones during National Donate Life Month. In past times, Southern Eye Bank has held in-person memorial events. These events included candlelight ceremonies, flag raisings, and donor drives. In this way we honored loved ones who have moved on to another realm, but chose to give what they could not take with them to benefit those of us still on this earthly plane. Selfless heroes, all!

With social distancing in place during the Spring of 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we could not hold these events that are near and dear to our hearts. Hospitals and churches served as the gathering places for these events. In April 2020, we could not conscionably continue to hold National Donate Life Month events in such public spaces. However, Southern Eye Bank was determined to honor our donor heroes even as we could not come together as a community. Thus, we created the virtual butterfly garden donor memorial.

The response from donor relatives and friends has been truly touching. Friends and relatives sent us favorite quotes and memories of their loved ones. We then posted these memories to the Southern Eye Bank Instagram account, along with an image of a butterfly. The colors of the butterflies represent the favorite colors of the donors – another small way their memory lives on.

Necessity birthed this new tradition, to be sure. However, it is a tradition which we hope to continue in the years ahead!

Below are the memorial butterflies from April 2020.

Gift of Sight Celebration 2019 attending family

News & Events

2020 Gift of Sight Celebration

December 31, 2019 Emily Eaton

You’re Invited to Southern Eye Bank’s

Sponsored by
EENT Foundation

Saturday, March 7, 2020
11:00 am – 2:00 pm
Louisiana Children’s Museum

at City Park
15 Henry Thomas Dr., New Orleans, LA 70124

Your ticket includes:

Free Admission to the new LCM at City Park
Donor Memorial Butterfly Release Ceremony
Picnic Lunch
Family Fun
Crafts & Activities

Tickets for friends of Southern Eye Bank are $25 per person. T-shirts may be pre-ordered for $12 each (limited supply available for purchase during the event). All proceeds from t-shirt sales fund the Gift of Sight Celebration. Children under 12 months old attend for free.

Ticket orders are now closed. Please contact Jennifer Babineaux for more information or additional tickets at [email protected] or 504.891.3937 ext. 1000.

Sponsorship opportunities start at $250

Please contact Jennifer Babineaux for more information at [email protected] or 504.891.3937 ext. 1000.

If you cannot attend the event but would still like to make a donation, you may do so.

2019 Donor Families and recipients, please call Southern Eye Bank for special rates, 504-891-3937 ext. 1000.

Thanks to our 2020 Community Sponsors

News & Events

Eye Donation Month 2019

November 5, 2019 Emily Eaton

Governor John Bel Edwards has issued a State Proclamation in honor of Eye Donation Month! Click here to view the proclamation.

Are you interested in participating in Southern Eye Bank’s activities in the community and our hospitals? Here are some of our upcoming events in the New Orleans and Lafayette/Lake Charles areas:

New Orleans:

Monday, November 4, 11:30am-2:30pm
- University Medical Center Eye Donation Month Donor Drive
- 2000 Canal St, New Orleans, LA 70112 (Cafeteria)
Thursday, November 7, 7:00pm-9:00pm
- Strikes for Sight
- Rock n Bowl – 3016 S Carrollton Ave, New Orleans, LA 70118
Friday, November 8, 11:00am-1:30pm
- West Jefferson Medical Center Eye Donation Month Donor Drive
- 1101 Medical Center Blvd, Marrero, LA 70072(Cafeteria)
Saturday, November 9, 5:00pm
- Donor Sabbath Celebration
- First United Methodist Church – 6109 LA-311, Houma, LA 70360
Monday, November 11, 9:00am-1:00pm
- Ochsner Medical Center Eye Donation Month Donor Drive
- Ochsner Medical Center 1514 Jefferson Hwy, Jefferson, LA 70121 (corridor by PJs)
Tuesday, November 12, 9:00am
- Celebration in the Oaks Tree Decorating – come help decorate the Christmas tree!
- Storyland at City Park – 5 Victory Ave, New Orleans, LA 70124
Thursday, November 14, 11:00am-2:00pm
- North Oaks Medical System Eye Donation Month Donor Drive
- 15790 Medical Center Dr, Hammond, LA 70403 (cafeteria)
Monday, November 18, 5:00pm
- North Oaks Medical System Tree of Life Celebration
- 15790 Medical Center Dr, Hammond, LA 70403 (surgery tower)
Tuesday, December 3, 1pm
- Donate Life Rose Parade Float dedication to a local hero
- 2000 Canal St, New Orleans, LA 70112 (UMC NO main lobby)
Tuesday, December 3, 2:30pm
- Tree of Heroes Celebration in front lobby close to the ER
- Ochsner Medical Center 1514 Jefferson Hwy, Jefferson, LA 70121

Lafayette/Lake Charles:

Tuesday, November 5, 6:00pm
- Candlelight Ceremony at Lafayette General Medical Center
- Sponsored by LGMC, Lafayette General Foundation, Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency and Southern Eye Bank
- Honoring donors from the hospital and celebrating the season of hope for the donor families.
Tuesday, November 12, 7:00am-Noon
- Donor Drive at Lafayette General Medical Center
Thursday, November 21, 5:00pm
- Recognizing Calcasieu Parish Coroner’s Office for its outstanding support of organ, eye, and tissue donation with a Heart of Donation Certificate. The presentation will be made at the Police Jury Meeting in Lake Charles.
Tuesday, November 26, 11:00am
- Every “Body” is a Super Hero program presented by SEB and LOPA for the Lake Charles Children’s Museum
Sunday, December 1, 2:00pm
- Tree of Life Celebration at Lafayette General Medical Center
Thursday, December 5, 10:00am
- Tree of Life Celebration and Donor Drive at Lake Charles Memorial Hospital

Strikes for Sight blindfold bowling tournament winners

News & Events

Strikes for Sight 2019

August 7, 2019 Emily Eaton

BLINDFOLD BOWLING TOURNAMENT

Join Southern Eye Bank for an evening of bowling, zydeco music and dancing, delicious local fare, and spirited competition while raising funds to increase awareness about corneal blindness and eye donation!

Thursday, November 7
7pm – 9:30pm

Rock ‘n’ Bowl
3000 S. Carrollton Ave. • New Orleans, LA 70118
Lane assignments at 6:45pm
Music starts at 8:30pm

$250 for a team (6 players max)
$40 per person ($25 non-bowlers)

Registration Includes:

Bowling & Shoe Rental

Music
Get ready to dance to Zydeco beats from Geno Delafose & French Rockin’ Boogie starting at 8pm. The $12 cover charge is included in your ticket price!

Food
Rock ‘n’ Bowl is serving up perfectly fried seafood, buffalo wings, pizza, mozzarella sticks, shrimp remoulade, and chicken & sausage jambalaya.

Soda, Wine & Beer

Sponsorship opportunities start at $500

Please contact Susana Ruddock for more information at [email protected] or 504.309.2283

REGISTRATION IS CLOSED

See you next year!

News & Events

ECHO Donate Life

June 20, 2019 Emily Eaton

Celebrated July 14-27, 2019, ECHO Donate Life is an annual initiative focused on reaching multicultural communities with the Donate Life message. Currently, multicultural patients make up a majority of the patients on the national transplant waiting list.

ECHO Donate Life is about community helping the community to save and heal lives. Lifesaving conversations are best heard from trusted sources and communities. The goal of ECHO Donate Life is to provide multicultural communities with meaningful tools and resources to support conversations about the importance of donation and transplantation, and how to register your decision to be an organ, eye and tissue donor.

The ECHO Donate Life initiative engages trusted social media and community storytelling to talk about donation, highlights the importance of registering to be an organ, eye and tissue donor, honors the generosity of donors and donor families, and celebrates the lives saved in multicultural communities.

“Donation is the one thing that has the power to level the playing field in all communities, regardless of color, race, or religion. It’s about every community helping every community through organ, eye, and tissue donation. Donation, in all its forms, in all its communities, has the opportunity to change and save lives,” says Marion Shuck, President-Elect of the Association of Multicultural Affairs in Transplantation (AMAT).

This year, ECHO Donate Life resources, storytelling and outreach will include:

Walgreens ECHO Donate Life In-Store Events: On Saturday, July 20, 9am-3pm, Walgreens will be hosting donor registration drives at more than 170 stores across the country. Walgreens has been an incredible national partner in ECHO Donate Life. Walgreens support has helped to bring resources and information about the cause of donation into hundreds of communities. Here is the list of participating Walgreens stores:
- 3333 Masonic Dr., Alexandria, LA 71301
- 11297 Florida Blvd., Baton Rouge, LA 70815
- 4110 General Degaulle Dr., New Orleans, LA 70131
- 1801 St. Charles Ave., New Orleans, LA 70130
- 3747 Moss St., Lafayette, LA 70507
- 2000 Gertsner Memorial Dr., Lake Charles, LA 70601
- 2636 Ryan St., Lake Charles, LA 70601
- 3555 Greenwood Rd., Shreveport, LA 71109

Boomerang #ECHODonateLife Challenge: DLA and AMAT are excited to host the second year of the Instagram Boomerang #ECHODonateLife Challenge. Individuals and communities share a Boomerang video on Instagram about why donation is important to them and/or what transplantation has made possible for them. Tag @donatelifeamerica, use the hashtag #ECHODonateLife Challenge, and encourage people to ECHO you and register their decision to be a donor.

You can register your decision to be an organ, eye and tissue donor with The Louisiana Organ, Tissue & Eye Donor Registry, at RegisterMe.org, in your iPhone Health App, or in Spanish at DoneVida.org.

Data from Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network (OPTN) as of April 2019.