For some of our neighbors, the best gift this holiday season might come from a stranger. It won't come in a box wrapped in pretty paper and curly ribbon.

And the magnitude of this most precious of gifts will make any other presents they've ever received seem insignificant.

For four weeks, Gateway Newspapers is featuring a series on organ donation. Our hope is that readers take time this holiday season to consider becoming a donor.

Right now, more than 2,000 people in the area that spans western Pennsylvania and most of West Virginia are on the waiting list to receive an organ transplant, said Holly Bulvony, director of corporate communications and public education for the Center for Organ Recovery & Education, or CORE.

This could be their last Hanukkah, Christmas or Kwanzaa.

Each day, an average of two people in this region die while waiting to receive an organ transplant.

"There is simply no better gift any person can give another than the gift of life," said Lee Adams, 50, of Mt. Lebanon, who had a liver transplant in 2004.

"Thank God for a wonderful, unselfish, compassionate organ donor and family for making a decision to give the gift of life."

Adams said he thinks frequently of Richard, the 51-year-old Chicago man whose liver has given him a second chance.

Jack Silverstein, 61, of Monroeville also knows the value of such a gift.

In 2002, he received a new pancreas and kidney from Jordan Fitzwater, 17, of Troy, Bradford County, who was kill-ed in an all-terrain vehicle accident.

"I am alive today because of him," he said.

In Pennsylvania, more than 4 million drivers have chosen to be listed as organ donors on their licenses, and about 875,000 state photo identification card holders have done the same, said Danielle Klinger, a Penn-DOT spokeswoman.

That's about 57 percent of all the licensed drivers and ID card holders statewide.

The state has added about 100,000 registrants a year this decade in that manner.

Worldwide, 21 countries, mostly in Europe, have presumed consent, meaning that someone who dies can be an organ donor unless they register prior objections. Bulvony said the opt-out rate is only 2 percent.

In 1987, the year the United Network for Organ Sharing began collecting data on donor and transplant recipients, 13,000 people were on the transplant waiting list nationwide.

Today, 20 years later, that number has grown to more than 98,000.

During the first six months of this year, 19,249 transplants took place in the United States, Bulvony said. But in the same time period, there were only 9,759 donors.

While 70 percent of Americans support organ donation, only 48 percent of Pennsylvanians actually consent to donation at the time of death of a loved one, Bulvony said.

While some donors provide multiple organs for different recipients, the number of donors is not sufficient, Bulvony said.

"They're not going up enough in relationship to the need," she said. "They go up somewhat. We work very hard for that. But it's very tiny increments."