Scarlet and gray pinwheels were planted on the lawn outside of the new University Hospital Tower on Monday. Credit: Audrey Coleman | Managing Design Editor
Over 13,000 scarlet and gray pinwheels were planted on the lawn outside of the new University Hospital Tower at Ohio State as patients, families and medical staff gathered to recognize successful transplants and celebrate Donate Life month.?
Every year, the Wexner Medical Center hosts a planting ceremony, centered around planting pinwheels with eight spokes, symbolizing each life one person can save through being an organ donor.?
In its 18th year, 13,800 pinwheels were planted at the event on Sunday to represent every successful transplant at Ohio State since 1967.?
“It’s a way to honor people who are organ donors, whether it be deceased donors or living donors,” said Todd Pesavento, medical director of the Comprehensive Transplant Center. “Sharing the celebration of people who have organ transplants and sharing a message with our community so people can become aware of what wonderful results we can have through organ donation.”
Medical center doctors performed 617 transplants in 2025, according to a press release. That number ranks Ohio State 14th in the nation for overall organ volume.?
The event also featured patients with successful stories through Ohio State transplant care, like Leon Chou. Chou received a kidney transplant in December 2025 from Tim Billingsley, a neighbor and fellow parent in the same Pickerington school district, after posting on social media in search of a donor.?
“As a new recipient, just seeing all of the people up here, seeing all the love, strangers coming up to me, it’s amazing,” Chou said. “I almost feel like I’m part of one big family now, and we’ll be connected for life to all these people.”
With more than 108,000 people waiting for a transplant, 2,700 of which are in Ohio, Pesavento said the event is designed to spread the message about organ donation while celebrating those already connected to the cause.?
“We really need to get the message to the rest of Ohio, the rest of the country,” Pesavento said. “Long term, what we would hope is that we don’t need to have this event, but that we prevent disease, but we still need healthy people to donate while they’re still alive, and people when they pass, to donate their organs to help those eight people that each donor can do.”
On the donor side, the experience goes beyond saving a life; Billingsley said it forms connections and partnerships, forged by a shared organ and watching an Ohio State football game in the hospital together after the surgery.?
“The story is so much bigger than just [Chou] and me,” Billingsley said. “When I heard how many people are on the wait list at Ohio State alone to get a kidney, and how many people, unfortunately, will not receive that, it just becomes a higher calling and a higher purpose for us to bring awareness to. If I had a third kidney, I’d do it again right now.”?
To register to be an organ donor, visit the medical center’s website or Donate Life Ohio.
