The 27th Annual Donor Dash 5k is Right Around the Corner!
The 27th Annual Donor Dash 5K is right around the corner! So, mark your calendars for Sunday, July 19, 2026, and join us at Denver’s beautiful Washington Park.
It’s a day filled with both purpose and community. Each year, this heartfelt event brings together thousands of participants including donor families, transplant recipients, living donors, and supporters. It’s a community connected by organ, eye and tissue donation.
It’s a day to honor, celebrate, and recognize all of those impacted by donation in our community.
How to Register and Form a Team for Donor Dash 5k
Getting signed up for the Donor Dash 5k is easy! You can register as an individual or start a team. If you create a team, you’ll automatically become the Team Captain. Teams come in all forms, each with a meaningful connection to the cause. Some are created by donor families honoring the legacy of a loved one. Others are made up of friends and relatives celebrating a transplant recipient’s second chance at life. Additionally, there’s an outpouring of support from our organizational partners and community. No matter how you participate, your presence helps raise awareness.
Early Packet Pickup Details
Join us for Early Packet Pickup on Wednesday, July 15 at the Donor Alliance office (200 Spruce Street, Denver, CO 80230). Team captains are responsible for picking up their team’s packets or designating a team member to do so. For teams with 10 or more participants, all packets will be grouped together for easy pickup. If you do not pick up your packet at early packet pick up, they will be available to get on race day starting at 7:00am.
Dashboard & Honorary Signs
Every photo and every sign has a story behind it.
As you make your way through Donor Dash, take a moment to visit the Dashboard near the main stage and the Honorary Signs displayed throughout the event. They represent the people who bring this community together, honoring donors, celebrating transplant recipients, and recognizing those who continue to wait for a lifesaving transplant. 
Submissions for this year’s Dashboard and Honorary Signs have already closed, but if you’d like to take part next year, be sure to keep an eye out on our social media channels and Donor Dash webpage for deadlines and information.
Donor Dash 5K Race Day Program
Join us on race day at 9:30 AM for a special onstage program that celebrates the connections created through donation. Right after you finish the race, you can pick up your connection ribbon to participate in the ceremony. See the color connections listed below. Each ribbon corresponds to a unique connection to donation. Each special connection to donation will be honored during this program.
You’ll hear a few words from:
- Ellie Paulson, a living donor
- Hilda Chávez, a kidney recipient
- Scott Pinkney, brother-in-law of donor & transplant recipient
- Savanna Ledoux, a supporter of the mission
- Rico, a candidate currently on the transplant waitlist
If you’re able, please plan to stay and take part in this inspiring experience! We’re excited to come together at the 26th annual Donor Dash 5K to honor, celebrate, and recognize the incredible impact of donation as a community.
The Stories Behind This Year’s Donor Dash 5K
Jenna McKinlay, a liver recipient is taking part in the event to honor two donors – her own and her brother. Jenna’s story is one of survival and unimaginable loss.
Jenna had been sick most of her life, first diagnosed with Crohn’s disease at 17, then with primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC) at 33, an autoimmune disease that slowly damaged her liver. She was raising three young sons at the time and otherwise felt healthy, so being told a transplant was somewhere in her future felt like living under a countdown with no visible clock. Six years later, her decline came fast. She was placed on the transplant waiting list on July 1 and, within weeks, received her transplant on August 1, 2024. Doctors later told her she wouldn’t have survived any longer without that transplant.
Recovery brought its own kind of astonishment; simply waking up, walking up a flight of stairs, watching her sons grow felt like gifts she’d never assumed she’d get.
That gratitude took on a second layer when, while Jenna was recovering, her brother registered as an organ donor for the first time, inspired by watching her journey. Not long after, he died in a car accident. Because he had registered, he went on to save multiple lives. “Because of my transplant journey, my brother became my hero,” Jenna says.
This year, Jenna and her family are dashing for both of their stories.
Stories like Jenna’s are why the Donor Dash exists, and why it’s grown into one of the region’s largest gatherings around organ, eye, and tissue donation. If you’d like to be part of it this year, whether you’re a donor family, a recipient, a waitlist candidate, or simply someone moved by what you’ve just read, you can find registration details, the full event schedule, and more ways to get involved on our Donor Dash event page.
