Emily Keyes made the decision to become an organ donor at an age when her life was seemingly in front of her.

"Emily was on the extemporaneous speaking team at school. We would read the newspaper and talk about all kinds of things," said Emily's mother, Ellen Keyes. "We told her 'You have to be knowledgeable about everything!' It initiated good conversations, and organ donation was one of those. It came up again when she got her learner's permit."

Sadly, the subject would emerge once again after the tragic Sept. 27, 2006, shootings at Platte Canyon High School that shattered the Keyes family and a community. It was at the hospital, after 16-year-old Emily was pronounced dead, that Ellen Keyes and her husband John Michael Keyes were faced with the finality and opportunity for others that their daughter being an organ donor brought.

"We were all pretty numb. There were a lot of chaplains around. The organ procurement people waited awhile, and they approached us very sensitively and asked the question about organ and tissue donation. We had forgotten about it under the stress," Ellen Keyes said.

John Michael Keyes added, " There was finality to it, a final air to things within a few hours. It was surreal."

The Keyes were required to approve a clinical form in order to make Emily's tissue available. Ellen said looking at a checklist of specific organs and tissues was difficult. "That broke us down to actually look at that, even though we had the discussion, it was difficult."

The Keyes said their role as proponents of organ donation is a positive thing that came from Emily's death.

"So many people want to reach out and help and take action and do something. This is something positive. It's kindness and an awareness of fellow beings," Ellen Keyes said. "You can save a life this way."

Although many of Emily's organs could not be used because of the nature of her death, her cornea went to a retired New York City policeman, and tissue and bone was also saved. The Keyes have received a letter from someone who received their daughter's soft tissue, but they have not been able to answer it yet.

"We haven't responded. It seems to get more difficult, it doesn't get easier," Ellen Keyes said.

While Emily helped save lives by donating her organs, her legacy may live on best by helping raise awareness of the need for organ donors.

Pam Macy, an Evergreen resident, said she is all too familiar with the need for donors. As a liver and kidney recipient, she was on a waiting list herself for six months and endured watching a friend die who was awaiting a second lung transplant.

"It's staggering to think of all the people who didn't have to die and could have productive years if people were more informed," she said.

Macy, 52, a mother of four and wife of adventure racer and lawyer Mark Macy, said, "I recently celebrated the 17th year of my liver transplant. This fall will be the fifth year for my kidney, which came from my brother."

Macy said her liver came from a woman who died from a blood clot to the brain. The immunosuppresant medication Macy took for her liver eventually damaged her kidneys and she required a kidney transplant.

"My lungs are older than I am and my kidney is younger. I don't think about it a lot; it's part of my life. I do what I'm supposed to do," Macy said. "I have a good life. People need to know how many people can be saved. My life was saved by a stranger."

Evergreen resident and lung recipient Sherry Motleysuffered from emphysema. She was 55 when she was forced to quit her job and was put on oxygen in 1999. She was placed on a list of 10 people awaiting lungs.

"The pulmonary specialist told me, 'You are gong to die if you don't get a lung transplant,'" she said.

After a year she called to see where she was on the list.

"I was number nine. I thought, Oh my God I am going to die. In May 2001 I called and I had jumped to number six after two years," she said.

Motley said she and her family and friends have written many letters to the family of a Nebraska man believed to have been in his teens, who saved her life with his right lung in 2001.

"It's a real strange feeling. It makes me very sad to realize someone had to die for me to live. And especially a young person, because I had lived my life. Everyone who has received an organ must feel this way. I think about this person quite often, what was he like, what was his family like. We've written many letters. Apparently the family doesn't want to accept the letters. And that's fine. Maybe it brings back too much hurt," Motley said.

Macy and her friend and lung recipient Carol Groves started a volunteer speakers bureau in 1992 to educate people about organ donation, which they coordinated through the Transplant Council of the Rockies. Now she said she still does the Donor Dash, a 5K Walk Run scheduled July 15 in Denver.

"We had about 20 recipients involved who were trained and available to speak to organizations. When Carol started to suffer with chronic rejection, she and I stepped back and others continued with the effort. If you inform people, most people think it's a good idea," Macy said. Carol died in 1996 while she was waiting for a second lung transplant.

Although she is gone, Emily is now helping make sure organ donation awareness stays in the forefront.

The effort was put in writing at a May ceremony with a declaration that extended the state's obligation to make people aware of their option to declare themselves organ donors by checking the option on their driver's license or by adding their names to a donor registry ( www.ColoradoDonorRegistry.org < http://www.ColoradoDonorRegistry.org>)

Gov. Ritter signed the bill to guarantee funding to promote organ donation and renamed it the Emily Keyes Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness Fund in honor of Emily.

The signed declaration is among the mementoes that spill over on to the floor of the Keyes' living room

"Too many parents have been through this and have been asked the question. I can't imagine making a decision if you haven't talked about it," Ellen Keyes said.

John Michael Keyes added, "You have to have the conversation."

"Emily's gift to us was to give us a voice and we chose to use it for this. It's a beneficial high," he said." We are in a place where we can speak and be heard, we have been able to help with the effort to raise awareness."