Newsmakers 2015: Rhonda Robert

As a nurse, Rhonda Robert is a big proponent of organ donation, so it seemed natural to have a conversation with her son about organ donation.

She didn't know at the time, though, that her 15-year-old son would lose his own life just a few months later. Kaden Robert, a student-athlete at Kelly High School in Benton, Missouri, died June 24, 2014, when a handgun accidentally discharged in the school parking lot after a basketball game with friends.

Even as she grieved the loss of her child, she followed through with plans to donate Kaden's organs, as he had wanted to do. He saved five lives with the donation of his organs, and Robert has received letters from three of the recipients.

Robert has since worked to raise organ donor awareness in Southeast Missouri. In April -- National Donate Life Month -- she organized a "Green Up" baseball challenge to raise money for a scholarship in memory of Kaden, as well as awareness for Mid-America Transplant Services in St. Louis. She also gave organ donor awareness a presence at Benton Neighbor Days and the SEMO District Fair, and has had T-shirts and green ribbons made to further boost awareness.

As a result, says Robert, countless people -- many of them Kaden's friends, and many of them strangers -- have approached her to say because of Kaden and what they've learned about organ donation since his death, they also have made the decision to donate their organs.

Robert encourages others to talk to their loved ones about organ donation.

"It's good to have that conversation with them so everyone understands the benefit that can come from this," she says, adding that one person's donation of tissue and organs can save up to 50 lives.

Robert hopes the "Green Up" challenges will become an annual event, and she continues to advocate for organ donor awareness wherever she goes, whether through her words or her organ donor T-shirts, bracelets and license plates.

"I think God has given us the ability and the modern technology and the means to donate, so that's what he wants us to do," she says. "Sometimes you don't know your purpose in life. Sometimes the purpose finds you."