If you’re still in the holiday giving spirit, you might take out your driver’s license and look at the back.

On it you’ll find a place to sign that states you are willing to make a gift upon your death.

“It’s an ultimate gift to somebody,” said Douglas County Sheriff Ken McGovern.

McGovern has been working this month as part of a national effort, the “Ultimate Gift Campaign,” to encourage organ donations.

McGovern said he learned about the program at a recent National Sheriff’s Association Conference.

A sheriff in Florida had lost a son. The donation of his son’s tissues and organs eventually helped 108 people.

McGovern’s office has taken a “lead by example” approach, handing out information and donor cards to sheriff’s employees.

“Hopefully, they will take it home, discuss it with their families and decide what they want to do,” McGovern said. “I think it’s a benefit to people out there who are trying to build on to their lives, and hopefully this will help.”

Debbie Johnson, director of programs for the National Kidney Foundation of Kansas and Western Missouri, said signing the back of your driver’s license or a donor card is a good start.

But it’s also important to make sure your relatives know your intentions if you die.

“The family is in crisis and the family may not know anything about organ donations,” Johnson said. “That’s just not a decision you want them to be making at that moment.”

One way to avoid confusion is to sign up on a donor registry, she said.

“Then there’s no question as to whether you wanted to do that or not,” she said.

Information about signing the donor registry or getting a donor card is available at www.shareyourlife.org. Other questions people may have about donating organs are answered on the Web site.

Douglas Count Sheriff Ken McGovern adds a bumper sticker to a patrol car Thursday afternoon. McGovern and Douglas County sheriff's employees are trying to help awareness of organ donation.

According to the Organ Procurement and Transplantation Network, there are 289 candidates in Kansas waiting to receive an organ donation, some who have been waiting for a few years.

That includes 230 for kidneys, 46 for liver, five for pancreas, 33 for kidney/pancreas, and eight for heart. Some patients are included in multiple categories.

The national waiting list of organ candidates was more than 94,000 as of Thursday.

Last year in Kansas, there were 206 donors, including 158 donors who were deceased and 48 who were living.

Men were more likely to be donors after death. Of the 158 deceased donors, 93 were men and 65 were women.

“The need is always going to be there, I’m afraid,” Johnson said.

Nationally, the Ultimate Gift Campaign has distributed more than 102,000 donor cards and more than 21,000 bumper stickers to sheriff’s department employees in 42 states.

McGovern said that besides considering being donors themselves, local sheriff’s employees are also providing organ donor cards for those who want to make anatomical gifts.

McGovern said he hasn’t been trying to keep track of how many people have decided to become organ donors in the county this month.

“Everybody has their own personal feelings about what they want to do,” he said. “It’s a big decision to make.”

He said it was important for those deciding to become organ or tissue donors to let their family know their intentions.

“To discuss it with your family and making that choice, it’s something that you don’t take lightly,” McGovern said. “Families have to go through a lot of soul-searching to know they would be willing to go through that for a family member, let alone some stranger.”