On Sunday, June 2, The LLF held its annual Ceremony of Remembrance to celebrate all of our organ and tissue donors and their families. This annual event allows us to come together as a donation community to honor and remember the legacy of life left by our donors and to reflect on this year’s theme “With the Love you Left Behind”. The ceremony was well attended with approximately 800 family members, community members, LLF staff, and volunteers.

We were grateful to have two recipients available to speak. Danette Ragin shared her kidney transplant story with the audience and Allison Sklarew shared her heart transplant story.  Both of their stories were reflective of their gratitude to be given a second chance and all the positive ways their lives have been transformed since they received their transplants.

A new addition this year was a children’s grief workshop held in the kid’s room during the ceremony.  This was led by our colleague, Susan, from the Hospice of the Chesapeake.  Almost 30 children were involved in sharing their emotions and building a “healing heart” for them to take home.

We also received feedback from multiple family members expressing how meaningful the ceremony was to them.  Some families have asked for copies of what our presenters shared and our recipient presentations.  Below, we share those poems and readings.

Untitled
By David Harkins
Adapted for the LLF Ceremony of Remembrance

We can shed tears that they are gone
Or smile because they were here
We can close our eyes and pray they’ll come back
Or open our eyes and see all they left for us
Our hearts can be empty because we can’t see them
Or they can be full of the love we shared
We can turn our backs on tomorrow and live in yesterday
Or be happy for tomorrow because of yesterday
We can remember them and only focus on them being gone
Or cherish their memory and help it live on
We can cry, close our minds, and turn our backs in sorrow
Or we can do what they’d want
Smile, open our eyes, love, live …….. and go on

May You Find Serenity
Author Unknown
Credit provided for excerpts from full text, with other original words by Karen Kennedy

 May you find serenity and tranquility in a world we may not always understand.  May the pain of your loss ultimately give you the strength to keep walking and face new challenges with courage and optimism. Always know there are those whose love will be there for you, even when you feel most alone. May a kind word, a reassuring touch, and a warm smile grace you every day of your life going forward.

May you find the strength to carry on and see the future as one filled with promise and possibility and be guided by the love and the legacy of your beloved, whose love has been left behind.

Just a Memory Away
By Rita Beer

I’m no longer by your side, but there’s no need to weep
I’ve left sweet memories I am hoping you will keep
Our joys and our memories stay in our hearts forever
Strengthening our special bond that parting cannot sever
Now it is time to carry on, so let your faith be strong
For I have gone to another place and am now where I belong
And as my loss brings you sorrow and dismay
Please don’t despair for I am here – just a memory away

The Path
By Rebecca Helbein

 You leave behind such memories that loved ones hold dear
They’ll take those down the path of their lives, though right now that path seems unclear

Today we gather together as you watch from above
And learn to walk a new life path, now lit with your love

Your light will never really fade, it actually gets brighter every day
As you lead them down their path of life, and show them how to carry on and lead the way

So continue your journey today, dear friends, and keep working through the pain
Your loved one’s light still shines bright and will guide you again and again

]]> http://livinglegacymd.wordpress.com/2013/06/14/new-low-prices-at-the-llf-online-store/feed/ 0 lmcallister2013 OnlineStoreBlogAd http://livinglegacymd.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/two-fathers-celebrate-life/ http://livinglegacymd.wordpress.com/2013/06/12/two-fathers-celebrate-life/#comments Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:12:13 +0000 Lisa McAllister http://livinglegacymd.wordpress.com/?p=1823 Continue reading →]]> Father’s Day is Sunday and is a time to not only celebrate the dads in our lives but also a time to remember the men we have lost. Here at The Living Legacy Foundation we are grateful for the opportunity to listen to the stories both recipients and donors share with us. The two stories below are from organ recipient fathers who celebrate the gift of life and are forever grateful for the extra time they have been given to share with their families.

Stan and his wife, Emily

Stan Kotler
6 year heart recipient
Potomac, MD

Six years ago, during recovery from my heart transplant at The University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore, MD my oldest grandson, then age 12, brought me a hat. The insignia on this hat says “Life Is Good.”  To this day, I wear this hat all the time because it expresses how I feel. Receiving the gift of life is a blessing words cannot adequately express. While I was in the hospital undergoing a battery of physical and psychological tests in preparation of becoming a heart transplant candidate, my wife was informed from my doctors I had about two months of life expectancy. Within three days of being placed on the heart transplant list, a healthy heart became available. Since my transplant, my life has been a phenomenal journey. We enjoy our relationship with our two sons and our six grandchildren, ages 8 to 18. Spending time with our families on holidays, birthdays, graduations and other happy events is what life is all about. Every day is a blessing and being given a second chance at life allows one to place the small challenges we all experience in their correct perspective.

Stan and his donor Mom, Adrienne

A little more than two years ago, my wife and I had the opportunity to meet my donor’s mother and her family. Although we come from different backgrounds and experiences we share a very common bond, we consider each other to be extended family. My donor’s mother donated seven healthy organs from her son to six different recipients. To this date, all recipients are healthy and well. My wife and I have dinner with my donor’s family about every two to three months. Our continued gratitude to my donor’s mom cannot be expressed in words other than “we love you.”

I also wish to express my gratitude to the heart transplant unit at The University of Maryland Medical Center. The team has been absolutely wonderful from the first day we met Dr. Erika Feller to the ongoing and continuous monitoring and semiannual checkups at the hospital. My wife and I are both organ donors as indicated on our driver’s license and we encourage everyone who is not, to consider the potential benefit you might provide to another person.

 _________________

Daronta Briggs
8 month kidney recipient
Owings Mills, Md.

As I close my eyes and visualize how my new life began on October 23, 2012, my heart fills with joy. On the morning of October 23rd at approximately 7:00am I received the gift of life from a selfless donor. My initial shock from the phone call wore off once I was in preparation for surgery. After receiving dialysis treatments four years, three times a week, I wished for a chance to spend more time with my family instead of being hooked up to machines four hours a day. Receiving a kidney transplant allows me more time with my family and a chance to focus on new endeavors, I am truly forever grateful.

There are just two of the many heartfelt stories LLF is grateful to receive every day.  For additional stories from recipients and donor families, please visit our website www.thellf.org

To register as an organ, eye and tissue donor, please visit www.donatelifemaryland.org or www.takeaminutesavealife.org

Want to share your story? We’d love to hear it. Email communications@thellf.org

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In recognition, LLF would like to share ways you can encourage and support Men’s Health Month.

• Plan an event in your workplace or community to spread the word about Men’s Health and encourage participation
• Download logos, flyers and posters to share online or in your community by visiting www.menshealthmonth.org
• Bring your coworkers and/or neighbors together to encourage getting healthy and active.
• Reach out to all the male’s in your life and ask them to visit the doctor regularly.

In the midst of enjoying all the activities of summer, take the time to encourage the males in your life to get regular checkups, eat right and exercise. A long and healthy life not only benefits the individual but his loved ones as well and can also make an impact on others. Make the decision to leave a legacy and save lives by signing up to become an organ, tissue, and eye donor. It only takes a minute – sign up now at www.takeaminutesavealife.org and share your decision with friends and family. Be a hero – sign up today!

For more information on Men’s Health Month and other ways to raise awareness please visit www.menshealthmonth.org

To register as an organ, eye and tissue donor, please visit www.donatelifemaryland.org or www.takeaminutesavealife.org

How are you celebrating Men’s Health Month? Share your story with us on Facebook!

Leave a legacy behind by saying “yes” to organ, eye and tissue donation.

With all the myths and misconceptions about organ, eye and tissue donation, it can be hard to answer the question, “Would you like to be an organ donor?” Organ donation is a positive act which saves and enhances the lives of many. Currently, there are more than 117,000 people nationally waiting for a life-saving organ transplant and more than 2,300 of those live in Maryland. Knowing the facts about donation will help you make an informed decision to potentially give the gift of life. Here is a list of 20 facts you probably didn’t know about organ, eye and tissue donation:

1. No patient is ever too old or too young to give the gift of life. The decision to use a patient’s organs and tissue is based on strict medical criteria, not age.

2. One donor can save up to nine lives, enhance the lives of 50 people through tissue donation and restore sight for up to two people through cornea donation.

3. Every 12 minutes a new patient is added to the waitlist.

4. Becoming a donor costs nothing to the donor or their family.

5. The Maryland Donor Registry, www.donatelifemaryland.org, allows you to specify which organs and tissues you’d like to donate.

6. Once a person receives an organ transplant they take medications called immunosuppressant’s to help keep their immune system from attacking the new organ. These medications are taken for the rest of their lives.

7. The doctors working to save a patient’s life in an emergency room or a hospital’s intensive care unit are separate from the medical team involved in the donation transplantation process. Doctors first priority is to save lives.

8. Brain death is irreversible cessation of all functions of the brain and brainstem, as determined by the patient’s attending physician and appropriate consultants, using national testing guidelines developed by the American Academy of Neurology. Brain death is a medical and legal definition of death.

9. Death by cardiac criteria is defined as the cessation of cardiopulmonary function. When your heart and lungs stop working at the same time and cannot be restarted.

10. Very few medical conditions automatically disqualify someone from donating organs. The decision to use an organ is based on strict medical criteria.  

11. A donor is never transported from the hospital they are in for the recovery process. Everything is completed at the donor’s hospital.

12. If someone decides to become a living donor (donation of partial liver, one kidney or partial lung), they can still live a good quality of life after the donation.

13. During skin recovery for tissue donation, skin is only removed from the back and thighs.

14. For cornea donation, the part of the eye used is the cornea. The eye’s cornea is the clear front surface and is part of the eyeball wall. If you wear contact lenses, the cornea is where you are placing them.

15. Tissue donation includes veins, heart valves, skin, bone, connective tissues  and corneas.

16. In accordance with state and federal regulations, hospitals in our service area are required to contact The Living Legacy Foundation in the event of a patient’s death or imminent death.

17. Research shows a vast majority of religious groups support organ and tissue donation and transplantation so long as it does not impede the life or hasten the death of the donor.

18. A person can still have an open casket funeral if they donate their organs, eyes and tissues.

19. During a kidney transplant, sometimes doctors will leave the nonfunctioning kidney in the body and just add the donated kidney.

20. The MVA is not the only place you can register to be an organ, eye and tissue donor. You can designate yourself at  www.donatelifemaryland.org or at www.takeaminutesavealife.org.

For more information on The Living Legacy Foundation, visit www.thellf.org

Please follow this link to start shopping, www.thellf.org.

For suggestions on other products you would like to see, feel free to email us at communications@thellf.org.

Now you can support organ, eye and tissue donation in a stylish way.

In addition to National Donate Life Month activities, many of our hospital partners participated in the Flags Across America Campaign by flying the highly recognizable Donate Life logo flag to show support for organ, eye and tissue donation. Along with flying the flag during the month of April, many hospitals raise the flag for someone who has made the selfless decision to save lives. The flag helps celebrate the generosity of donors, their families and raises awareness about the urgent need for life-saving organs and tissues.

Here are a list of hospitals in Maryland who have raised the Donate Life flag:

Flying the Donate Life Flag is a sign of remembrance for donor families and a memorial for those who have given the gift of life.

• Anne Arundel Medical Center
• Atlantic General Hospital
• Calvert Memorial Hospital
• Carroll Hospital Center
• Dorchester General Hospital
• Frederick Memorial Hospital
• Greater Baltimore Medical Center
• Harford Memorial Hospital
• The Johns Hopkins Hospital
• Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center
• MedStar Franklin Medical Center
• Memorial Hospital at Easton
• Meritus Medical Center
• Northwest Hospital
• Peninsula Regional Medical Center
• Sinai Hospital
• University of Maryland Medical Center
• University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center
• Upper Chesapeake Medical Center

  The Living Legacy Foundation would like thank our area hospitals for participating in activities focusing on raising awareness for organ, eye and tissue donation.

If the hospital you work for would like to get involved, contact your hospital services coordinator or e-mail hospitalservices@thellf.org.

For more information on The Living Legacy Foundation, visit http://www.thellf.org/

Volunteers, healthcare professionals, schools, businesses, private organizations and the public as a whole really showed up and showed out to make this day a one to remember.

Joining in on the crusade, hospital staff showed their support by wearing green scrubs, pins and shirts. Greater Baltimore Medical Center emergency room staff even took time out of their busy schedule to show us their creative green wear. Throughout the month of April many of the hospitals in Maryland hosted donation information booths to support National Donate Life Month.

GBMC emergency room staff delighted to be seen in green on 4/19!

The LLF received pictures from hospital staff sporting their green from Frederick Memorial Hospital, Greater Baltimore Medical Center, Harford Memorial Hospital, Meritus Medical Center, The Johns Hopkins Hospital, The Johns Hopkins Hospital Bayview Medical Center, University of Maryland Medical Center, University of Maryland St. Joseph Medical Center and Western Maryland Medical Systems. We also received pictures from the Maryland Hospital Association in their best green wear. Check out our Facebook page: www.thefacebook.com/TheLLF for all the pictures posted.

Bel-Air MVA branch raising awareness with their green HERO t-shirts!

We were equally excited to see the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration branches sporting green. To show their support, they wore HERO shirts, Donate Life pins and other green accessories to support this great cause. To check out photos of other MVA branches’ in their green glamour, visit Donate Life Maryland Facebook page. Pictures can be seen of MVA branches’ from all over the state. 

The green spotlight was on other community partners throughout the state as well. Primavera Italian Restaurant and Bar held a fundraising benefit on April 19th. A portion of customers checks were donated directly to The Living Legacy Foundation of Maryland. What an awesome way to mix two great things, authentic Italian food and organ, eye and tissue donation. We even received pictures of our four legged friends in their best green wear! Lastly, donor families, living donors, recipients and others touched by donation shared photos of themselves sporting green and posted them to our Facebook page. The response was amazing and reminds us of why we educate the public and celebrate the lives of our donors.

Katie Bigelow, heart recipient, shared this photo of a cake she was given to celebrate her one year anniversary of being given a second chance at life.

To view the photo album from that day, click here.

Social Media Highlights From ‘Be Seen In Green Day’!

• 129 pictures were posted to The LLF Facebook page      
• 66 of our Facebook fans created posts related to ‘Be Seen In Green Day’
• 26 new “Likes” on The LLF Facebook page
• 20,817 the total amount of people who saw our Facebook posts

Donor mom, Sonja Hoover (standing second from right), recruited her coworkers to wear green in support of organ, eye and tissue donation and in memory of her son, Quinn Hoover, who was a donor in 2012.

For more information on Donate Life Maryland or to register to be an organ, eye and tissue donor, visit Donate Life Maryland at www.donatelifemaryland.org.

 For more information on The Living Legacy Foundation visit www.thellf.org.

This was an awesome and beautiful day. We could not have done this without the help and support of our community partners. We can’t wait to see the state painted in green next year!

Each flag planted represents the more than 2,300 Marylanders waiting for a life-saving organ transplant. These flags will be seen by the thousands of motorists who travel Route two as a reminder of how great the need is for organ, eye and tissue donation.

On April 11, 2013, Donate Life Maryland (DLMD) and the Maryland Motor Vehicle Administration (MVA) hosted a flag raising ceremony in celebration of National Donate Life Month. This event was held at the MVA headquarters in Glen Burnie, Md. To share in this wonderful event were LLF representative’s, local media, MVA Administrator John Kuo and others who support this life-saving cause. Special guest, Gene Cassidy, liver recipient and former Baltimore City Police Officer, shared his life changing story about the gift he received from a selfless donor. To close the ceremony, for the first time ever, a large Donate Life flag was raised, to generate awareness across the state for the importance of organ, eye and tissue donation. In addition, nearly 2,300 Donate Life logo flags were planted on the front lawn to represent the more than 2,300 Marylanders who are currently waiting for a life-saving organ transplant.

Jennifer Gelman, Director of Communications for The Living Legacy Foundation said “Donate Life Maryland and The Living Legacy Foundation are honored the MVA allowed for this flag to be flown to raise awareness and honor our organ, eye and tissue donors. This is a huge milestone in our effort to educate the public on how extensive the waiting list is for a life-saving organ transplant in Maryland. With this flag being raised, hopefully more Maryland residents will be inclined to register.”

Currently, more than 117,000 people nationally are waiting for a life-saving organ transplant. Because Marylanders can designate themselves as organ, eye and tissue donors at the MVA, raising the Donate Life flag is essential to the organization’s life saving mission.

Visit Donate Life Maryland, http://www.donatelifemaryland.org, to register as an organ, eye and tissue donor.

For more information on The Living Legacy Foundation visit http://www.thellf.org.

On that night, Team Maryland had present, 18 recipients, three living donors and five donor families. The team posed for a photo, in green of course, promoting “Be Seen In Green Day” which was on April 19th.

Team Maryland catered to a crowd of more 300 people at the team’s annual Longerberger Basket Bingo fundraiser on April 6. This sold out event raised more than $8,000 to assist team members in travel costs associated with the 2014 Transplant Games of America in Houston, Texas July 10 -15, 2014. 

Latrice Price, Team Maryland Manager said, “Now in our 6th year, Basket Bingo has become one of our major fundraisers for Team Maryland. It has been a pleasure to see the event grow over the years and we are happy to have so many faithful supporters.”

Team Maryland is a group of transplant recipients, living donors, donor families and supports who compete every two years in Olympic style events.

The mission of the Transplant Games of America is to showcase the success of transplantation, promote the importance of donor designation and honoring those who have given the gift of life

Team Maryland is always looking for new members to join them on their quest to the games.  For more information on joining Team Maryland go to http://www.thellf.org/volunteers/team-maryland or call 410-242-7000.

 For updates on events with Team Maryland, “Like” them on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/#!/TeamMaryland.

 For more information on The Living Legacy Foundation visit http://www.thellf.org.