This is a very meaningful month for Presque Isle first-grander Patrick Michaud and his parents, Mike and Stacey Michaud, and they want to share the reason why with you.

April is National Donate Life Month, and Patrick is an organ recipient.

The Michauds want you know some facts about organ donation, which they provided.

They want you to know that, each year, more than 6,000 deceased donors make more than 25,000 organ transplants possible, and that nearly 7,000 transplants are from living donors.

That more than 87,000 people are waiting for life-saving organ transplants, and an average of 17 people die, every day, while waiting for an organ due to lack of availability.

That every organ and tissue donor can save and enhance the lives of up to 50 people.

That there is no cost, and organ donation does not interfere with medical care.

That all organs are considered for all patients, depending on the medical donation at the time of death, and that all major religions support organ donation and consider it an act of charity.

The Michauds know “you have the power to donate life,” Stacey Michaud wrote in asking you to consider being an organ donor.

“All you need to do is make the decision to do it, tell people, and indicate it on your driver’s license.

“That’s it. From that moment on, you are a life-saving hero,” she wrote.

When Patrick was 11 months old, he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure probably caused by a virus that attacked his heart, she explained.

The prognosis was that, over time, drug therapy would help his heart recover.

But, two years later, after participating in an experimental drug study that involved twice-daily shots and hospitalizations, Patrick’s heart had deteriorated beyond repair, “and was the worst in the state.”

He was put on a transplant wait list.

“We were, of course, completely distraught,” his mother wrote. “We had a pager and were on call for a heart. Approximately 30 days later, as we had been watching our son’s health deteriorate, we got a call that a perfect heart had been found.”

“We were transported by LifeFlight to Children’s Hospital in Boston, where the transplant took place. By the grace of God, our son’s transplant was successful. However, he would not be here today, four years later, had that organ not become available when it did. He is a robust first-grader, and no one would suspect anything from looking at him.”

The Michauds, and we who know those whose lives have been saved by a transplant, urge you to learn more about organ donation by visiting the New England Organ Bank Web site at www.neob.org.

Norma Binan of the Bangor Area Sewing Guild reports members are preparing to sew quilts for the St. Jude Project Quilt of Dreams.

Guild members will meet at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, April 23, at the Hampden Municipal Building, 106 Western Ave., “to sew up these quilts,” she wrote.

They have two requests: That readers donate fabrics to help defray the cost, and to join them that day in sewing the quilts.

The sewing starts in the morning and lasts “until we can’t stand it any longer,” Binan added.

If you cannot attend or bring fabric to the meeting, you can call Binan at 862-4367 and make arrangements to drop fabric off at her house, or she will provide you with a Bangor address where you can leave it.

All quilts will be donated to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn.

For more information, visit http://www.hancockfabrics.com/stjude.

Do you think your school’s history teacher is the best?

If so, you should contact the school superintendent, principal, department head or other supervisor to nominate that teacher for the second annual Preserve America History Teacher of the Year Award.

In a release from the Maine Historical Society, which is seeking nominations in partnership with Preserve America and the Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History, Stephen Bromage, Maine state coordinator, reports “we need your help in identifying and nominating Maine’s best history teachers.”

The Maine winner becomes a finalist for the national competition, receives a $1,000 honorarium, certificate of recognition and a core archive of history books and materials for his or her school library.

The nomination deadline is Friday, May 13.

More information about the award can be obtained by calling Bromage, 774-1822, e-mailing sbromage@maine

history.org or visiting www.mainememory

.net/teacheraward.

Joni Averill, Bangor Daily News, P.O. Box 1329, Bangor 04402; 990-8288.