PITTSBURGH, July 5, 2018 — The Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE) collaborated with Pittsburgh-area and West Virginia businesses for the first CORE Small Business Challenge.

The challenge encouraged area businesses to raise awareness about organ, tissue and cornea donation, and to register more people as donors at their place of business. Companies competed to see which location could achieve the highest number of new organ donor registrations. CORE provided educational and marketing materials to the small businesses.

“CORE’s first Small Business Challenge enabled us to collaborate with businesses in our service area to raise awareness and register more people to provide hope to the nearly 115,000 people waiting on the transplant waiting list,” said Susan Stuart, president and CEO, CORE.

The inaugural winner was Fit 4 Boxing Club of Hampton Township, Pennsylvania, which set up a table with organ donor registration cards and used its end-of-class announcements – nearly 50 a week – to encourage people to register as an organ donor. The club achieved 54 new organ donor registrations.

“We strive to make people in our community feel good,” said Brett Burkhart, general manager, Fit 4 Boxing Club. “We enjoy connecting with folks in our community and supporting local causes whenever possible. Several of our members even took cards home for their loved ones to fill out, and we had a huge success with the organ donor drive.”

Other participants included Tyler Mountain Funeral Home and Cunningham Memorial Park in West Virginia, Windswept Frame & Art, Cousins Lounge, Studio RAW, Sugar Spa, Christian Community Church and Flowerama in the Pittsburgh area.

Each organ, tissue and cornea donor can save up to eight lives and enhance as many as 75 lives.

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Fit 4 Boxing Club of Hampton Township, PA won the inaugural CORE Small Business Challenge.