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Hello, and welcome to the Gifted Life Podcast where we have conversations about organ, tissue, and eye donation. I'm Laurie Steele, and guess what, guys? Joey and Sally gave me the reins on this when this is a special edition of the Gifted Life episode. Episode 61 is dedicated to the hearts touched and minds changed because of one grieving father on a healing journey.
Millions have watched the video of that father and his daughter's heart recipient. In this episode, we walk you through how that one moment came to be a behind the scenes, if you will. Now, we want to ask that you please share this podcast. It's really easy to do.
You can pull us up on your favorite podcast app, Search for the Gifted Life. Our goal is to make life happen. You can be our partner. That video that I mentioned, it went viral on Facebook.
So we're Donate Life, Louisiana. We want you to check that out. Twitter and Instagram. Go to the Gifted Life.
LA and hey, we have a hotline. 504-648-3477-504648-3477. We want to tell your story. It acts like a voicemail.
All you have to do is call in. Tell us your story. Be interactive so that you too can be part of this life-saving team. I'm ready to go.
Hold on to your hats, guys. We'll be right back. Okay, guys. So we want to tell you how this story came to be, how it unfolded.
To do that, I want to bring in Lopa's CEO, Kelly Rannum. Hey, Kelly. Hi. She's also one of the founding partners of the collaboration of organizations that make up Donate Life, Louisiana.
When it comes to making life happen, you are big on partnerships. On working with other folks, just write the word to make life happen, right? Absolutely. Takes a village.
Takes a village. Right. So we follow our fearless leader here. We're assigned a project.
Okay, we got word that this grieving father was traveling by by from Wisconsin. And he was going to make a stop in Louisiana to meet his heart recipient, right? So we get this assignment. It comes in my lap, which I was honored.
So a Lopa team was assigned. So myself and Samantha Miller, donation services coordinator, we start putting plans into place. We do that with every family, right? When folks come to us, we want to offer as much support as possible.
Absolutely. Whenever we can and how much we can. Yeah. So we're like, hey, we may need a status go.
We need some place for him to stay and you're like, figure it out. Let me know. So that's kind of what we did. And then we got to hear the sweet set.
Did you hear that? That was Abby's heartbeat. And we say that's the heartbeat that was heard around the world. You think that's accurate?
Extremely accurate. We're amazed at how many countries have reached out to us, not just the United States and Canada, but I think North Korea probably stunned me more than any and considering all that's going on in this world that our segment would touch them enough to reach out and want to know more, which was amazing. So Bill Connor, a father, and he's grieving. And he said, this is my grieving journey.
This is my healing journey. I'm going to travel to your state and I'm going to meet my daughter's heart recipients. And we wanted to let him hear that heartbeat. And we've been to many of these meetings and Bill said, hey, I'll be fine because I talked to him on the phone before, but you know, you've been in the donation world actually meeting, actually hearing that heartbeat.
That's something different, right? It's a powerful moment to watch someone actually hear their loved ones heart still, you know, something they hear when they're born and now he gets to hear it in a different form. Yeah. And so we took pictures.
We took video that day and those pictures don't even need a caption because the emotion is there. You see it in his face and you see the muscles tense as he's hugging that heart recipient, which was incredible. But none of that would have happened if they wouldn't have agreed to meet. So Bill, the donor dad said, I want to meet.
I want to meet on camera. So Lamont, Jack, Jr., they call him Jack. They call him Robie. He's a character from what we've seen, right?
And he said, I think it's OK. He's 21. So there's a lot of life coming to him. I had a heart attack at 20, but he said, I think this is the right thing to do.
So we all watched that video. You're watching it. You've been in the donation world, right? And I think we all watched it through different eyes.
I lost my mom and I saw the grieving dad and the love for that child. We worked with some college students and they said, he's a college student. He had a heart attack at 20. So that got their attention.
So you, from your world, your seat, how did you see that? And a lot of different views of parents of somebody that's Jack's age. And I couldn't imagine not having that to hold on to and see every day. And then as a parent to know that you could have or did lose, you know, your daughter.
And I think that I identified in so many ways a parent, an employee that's lucky enough to do this job every day of her life and know that you make a difference, no matter how small, it's a difference. And every day brings something new and exciting and a better view of humanity. You know, we get to see the specialness that comes from it and not just for the recipients but for that donor family. And I think all of that came together in that moment and that it happened to be Father's Day made it that much more unique and special that you have this beautiful, poised young man that received an organ from a beautiful, poised young woman and then you could see where that came from.
And that was in her father. And so I think it just kind of all came together in that moment and positive. That's why it resonated with the world. And I was telling the Get to Life podcast group.
I said, I need to figure out another term, but I always say it was a perfect storm. I don't like using that because there was truffles from Cindy happening around the same time as this video was shot on Father's Day. But we always try, especially on the podcast. We want to inspire other people.
We want to ask people to take action. And that's kind of what this video did. It kind of went viral the life of its own. But we had positive conversations because of it.
We had people thinking, we had donation on the front of their brains because this group came together to make that moment happen. The beauty of that moment is it sort of dispelled some of those myths that exist or maybe some of those preconceived notions that sit in the back of people's minds, whatever they may be. And knowing that you can make that difference with that maybe that you would have had an impact to be able to save someone like Jack, that young man's life and make a difference. And I think that resonated with people obviously because we've had so many registrations at registerme.org three times the norm that they usually see.
And we have over 80,000 registrations after that video made the social media airwaves. And I think it's a powerful thing. Yeah. And we had lots of conversations going on.
So we go through Facebook. So that's donate life Louisiana. But the comments pouring in are positive. And so when I was reading them, it was crossing racial barriers, language barriers, religious barriers.
It was this one embrace, this one heartbeat, capture the attention of the world. I think that it's what we all want in this world, peace and love and something so perfect and beautiful. And that was just the perfect image of it. And I think it stays with me after 20 plus years in this field.
And I have watched families meet their recipients and every story is beautiful and every story is unique and every story is important to us. And I just wish they could all be out there because I think that this impact would be even more viral if the stories we see on a daily basis, the public and the world could see. Yeah. And so we had a host, lovely host in Louisiana.
We'll hear from her coming up on the gifted life. But she said, I had a heart of my license here in Louisiana. Yes, donation was great. And I went up until I witnessed that in person until I watched that video again and again and again.
She said, now I'm bored, I'm passionate about it, I live it and I help spread the word. So we love when something like that happens and we love our partners because we had to partner with folks in Florida, Wisconsin, here in Louisiana, the different facets. And that's what made this one moment happen. That's what we strive to do.
Absolutely. There's 58 organ procurement agencies across the country and each one of us have a part to play in that as well as the over 200 transplant centers. And together we make that happen. Those partnerships and the work of the community and our volunteers and the people that are willing to tell their story and to get it out there.
It's what makes all this work. What makes life happen. Yeah, and here at Lobo, we are inspired. We follow our fearless leader here who says, shoot for the stars.
Let's see what we can make happen. And we were just trying to get this story off the ground. We met the place that had no businesses around it. And so we were just trying our best and it happened to work that day.
And we're going to tell you more coming up right here on the gifted life. Okay, guys. So this is how the story of Bill and Robie meeting came to be. So I got on the phone with Bill and Bill said, I'm coming to your area.
I'm going to end up in the new roads area, which I wasn't that familiar with. But we had friends in that area. We had a crew at LSU that we do every semester. We work with them and they said, hey, we can be on the ground.
We can help. We called up old friends and this is from high school days. So way back when my husband had a friend, we called up and we said, can you help? Here's what's happening because we had no contacts on the ground.
But this all worked out perfectly. Take a listen. The gifted life on location, lots of family and friends out here watching this beautiful scene unfold. One of those people is Mary and she's with vital communications.
Vital communications quite new, huh, Mary? Very new on LSU's campus. So you're taking a class, the service learning class. We're going to increase the donor registry.
We're going to spread donation awareness, right? Yes. And so what did you witness today? How did you help make this scene unfold today?
I am in charge of the media relations aspect of everything and I called up news stations. I called up news papers. And so that's the part of your learning, right? Yeah.
Very hand-bought experience for me. First time I've ever had to do that. And I tried contacting ABC because I have a friend that worked there but I didn't work out. So one day.
Yeah. It's all these people. They might contact me tomorrow so you never know. You never know.
So all these people, we always take one person to make a difference and look at you reaching out to people that we've never talked to before and that's how it works and we spread the message. We're in the New Roads area and we're making friends but I had to introduce you to Ms. June Hilliard because she has been our little angel as we have been anticipating Bill's arrival in Louisiana. And so let's talk about the day that you and I talked on the phone.
Had no idea who I was, right? Right. So my husband and your son went to school together. Correct.
And we knew that we were coming to this area and we said, hey, we need some help. I'm going to poke around and see if anybody had some connections. Where can he stay? Where can he eat?
And then I called up Ms. June, explain what was going on and you said what? I said, sure, we have, you know, either I have an extra bedroom or there's a camp next door that no one is staying in that I have access to and we would be glad for him to stay there and you know, just be able to rest and whatever else you need. And she's being modest.
Open her home. Food. Amenities. Offered to cook.
Offered to cook. Posted everyone. Super. Right.
Why do that? We just love to entertain. We love people. Just love to share what we have and just we like to talk and visit.
That's what we did. Now had you heard about donation, anything had to come across? Did you have a heart on your license? Anything like that?
Anything like that? Any type of donation? Definitely have a heart on my license and plan, you know, for that to happen. Hopefully not soon.
Right. Definitely believe in it. I think it's just awesome. And this story here is just beyond belief, you know, it was just awesome to be a part of it and I'm just so glad I said yes.
So those wonderful people came together. Our goal was to make that comfortable support dad to make ropey comfortable, to make ropey is family comfortable and it worked out. So this is audio of Bill Robey, Robey's family on the initial meet on Father's Day 2017. Pretty powerful.
Laurie still here with a gifted life on location in the new roads area made a new friend named Bill. How are you? All right. So you've been biking across the country.
Why? To honor my daughter Abigail May and raise awareness for her organization. Yeah, so tell us about Abby. Beautiful.
Yeah, beautiful. Unfortunately, somebody else made a choice to ever leave us, but I'm riding to honor her and make sure that people understand what she did, who she is and make sure that people don't forget about her. So the bike ride is the honor her in 26 hundred miles to go to the Fort Lauderdale Broward Medical Center where they took care of her and hopefully I'm just carrying the torch for her for now. So we talked to several people today and they said they would describe Abby as a hero.
I've heard that a lot. Obviously helping people in need is just kind of a unique fit in terms of helping somebody live or live a better life. I don't think you could find a better thing to do for somebody. She's got four people living because of her and then with her eyes and tissues obviously at the end of the day it'll end up probably being hundreds of people with her tissues that she's helped people.
So every day that you bike is a special day, it's a accomplishment, it's progress. More people are knowing about donation. Today was quite special. Special.
Yep, was able to spend Father's Day with Rope. His name is Jack, but his nickname is Rope. So two dads got to celebrate Father's Day today. His father obviously Jack's here because of Abby and I was here to spend Father's Day with Abby because Abby's heart is inside of Jack and she's alive.
So pretty special day. Yeah, it was emotional for me. I can only imagine for you. Yeah, well I have a feeling it's going to be emotional the rest of my life.
So but today to be able to meet the recipient, that was pretty cool. I talked to Jack on the phone four or five times prior, but listening to Abby's heart inside of him today was pretty, I mean there's nothing better. Yeah, and so our Lady of Lake Regional Medical Center allowed us to use a machine so that you and everyone else could hear that heartbeat and that was pretty special. Now you can take that recording with you the rest of your track.
Yep. So I'll just push the button, listen to her heartbeat and she'll be telling me to pick up the pace. She'll be with me. She'll get you there.
She'll get you to the end. And so Rope today said he just turned 21, daughters around his same age. What do you think about this kid? He's a great kid, humble, special kid.
Like I said, I've talked with him five or six times on the phone and he's just very well mannered. He's special. So yeah, I'm glad. I don't know how you support organ donation today after meeting him in person listening to the heartbeat.
What are your thoughts on donation? Well, I mean, he's a start. You know, obviously there's other people in need and it's part of seeing the outcome of it, of giving families hope and other people hope to live or live a better life. I think it's important that you don't wait for tragedy to take place.
I mean, obviously what happened with Abby, I'm glad that she was able to help people that you know, one donor can help eight people. I think it's crazy itself ish, the various things that could help other people live. And I guess that's my perspective, but it's just you got to help people. I mean, what a legacy.
I mean, leave your organs to have somebody live or keep living or live a better life. What better legacy could you have? That's right. I have some special guests today.
Tell me your name, sir. My name is Lamont Jack. And you ma'am? Alisha Jay.
And we are here today because we just witnessed something incredible. What happened today? Can you tell me, sir? Well, we've met Bill.
Bill's, uh, Abby's father. Abby is the lady that my son got her heart. My son needed a heart transplant and we've met Bill today. Wow.
The father. And so as a mom, I mean, I was tearing up, but for you, what was that like? It's really emotional. And I'm so grateful and thankful that this man allowed my son to live.
I mean, it's just a blessing. And then you were you tearing up there, dad? I cried. I'm very emotional.
I'm gone. When it comes down, I think I'm pretty horrible. When it comes down to my family, I cry quickly to my wife. Oh, and that's your baby, though?
That's my baby. Yeah. That's my baby. Yeah.
And he was close to death. You were saying? Yes. Yes.
He had eight days to live when he found a heart. Yes. Yes. Yes.
Wow. And then his story was so incredible because he was telling me a heart attack at 20. He's in college. Like you don't think about that.
Right. Exactly. And he's not a person to a snow drink and it's just an unfortunate situation, but turned out to be a blessing in the end. It's just not something that was in topic.
No, it was not in the topic. At first I was thinking all kind of crazy stuff about donations. I believe in the midst. Yeah.
Okay. And if I tell this happen now, I'm a strong believer of donating my heart. We just went into something incredible. We had a donor dad meet with heart recipient and have the heart recipient here.
Tell us your name. You're my executive. I go by a ropey. A ropey.
And I hear you just turned 21. Oh, yes, ma'am. April 7th. And you're feeling okay today?
Oh, yes, ma'am. When did you get that new heart? January 13th, 2017. Just got it.
Yes, ma'am. And I just sent my condolences out to him. I really don't know the feeling he feels because he lost his daughter. But I do have her heart and I can spread the love by letting them be with her.
The top of your mom and dad, and they said she's a hero. She saved your life. What do you think about Abby? Oh, yeah.
I love Abby. I love Abby. You carry her around every day? I carry her around every day.
And I don't go and do what I was thinking about her. And like I said, where's Kenny's name? How wonderful. Thanks to Abby.
I can run again. You're emotional when you were hugging Bill. Yes, ma'am. What did you feel like?
I felt like he was my dad. I felt like that was daddy. Yeah. And his father's day.
Is that like a second dad now? Yep. And I bought him a gift because I knew everyone wanted that. And then we listened to your heart.
Yep. And it sounded wonderful. Well, we appreciate your time. Yes, ma'am.
Thank you. So after Louisiana, the video shot by Loca and Donate Life, Louisiana started to spread. Guys, not only across Louisiana, not only across the state, but across the country and across the world. So media outlets started helping to tell this story and they were using the video from Louisiana to do it.
It was emotional. Everybody, like we said, saw it through their own eyes. It was emotional. I could watch it again and again.
But at the same time, Bill, he's not done with his journey. So he continued to Florida. His in goal was to reach the hospital where Abby, his daughter became a donor. And remember, those were the partners that we were working with the entire time to make that happen.
So Loca sent me to Florida to join with our partners as Bill finished his 2600 mile journey. So now let's listen to some of those there who pour their hearts into their work. Lori Steele here with the Get to Life on Location in Florida. And I am talking to a guy in a white coat.
You seem very important, sir. I'm Dr. Algazade. I'm a transplant surgeon.
I do abdominal liver, kidney transplant and power health medical center. We have this story that we're following that has really touched hearts across the country and across the world. Bill Connor, meeting his heart recipient. You're in the donation world.
So what does something like that do for you just as a person? I think this is very important in barking to go through this journey to raise and increase the awareness of our organization. This is something important for our patients. We have a lot of patients waiting for a gift to save their lives.
Unfortunately, we have in this country more than 7,000 people die while they are waiting for organ transplantation. What Connor did is great to increase awareness of people about the importance of organ donation. Yeah, and I don't know if you heard the statistics, but registrations went up over 80,000 following him meeting the heart recipient on Father's Day. So that means people are talking positively about it from your side.
That's got to have an impact, right? Yes, of course. Despite all these advances in medicine technology awareness, still we have growing gap between supplies and demand. We only do a quarter of the people on waiting list and anything like this happening, increase awareness, this is give a chance to every candidate to get organ transplantation.
So I think this is very important. Yeah, and one of the things that Bill wants to put out is that if you become an organ donor, you are a hero, you are saving lives and you see that every day. Yes, every donor can save it lives. Thank you, sir.
Appreciate it. On location in Florida and I made a new friend, but we did not meet today, right? Nope. This has been a long time coming.
I'm glad that I finally get to meet you. We've been following Bill's ride and you are with who? Life Alliance, Organ Recovery Agency. Life Alliance, Organ Recovery Agency.
So everybody saw this video, millions saw this video of Bill meeting his heart recipient and we're kind of doing it behind the scenes because that moment did not just happen. Everybody was working together, right? Yes. Yes.
So I got a call from Florida saying, hey, this guy is coming down to Louisiana where you are. So let's talk about that partnership and our end goal. So Bill reached out to us and he wanted to have a celebration in Abby and honor what she is doing. She was a registered donor and he thought that was very noble of his daughter that she decided to save lives, but if unfortunately, if an event occurred and she passed away, she wanted to be able to save lives.
So he reached out to us and he wanted to come where it all happened, which is Brow Health Medical Center. So we partnered with Brow Health Medical Center and also Abby was a tissue donor and also an I, Courtney as a donor, so we partnered with them as well as the UM-TV Foundation and then Fort Aligns Eye Bank, which is the Eye Bank. And we have done a huge event here, the Abby's Finish Line Celebration, a whole bunch of people are coming out just to do celebration and say thank you. And there's one big surprise that Bill does not know about.
The mayor of Fort Lauderdale is presenting him with the key of Fort Lauderdale. Yeah. So that doesn't just happen, right? This has been weeks.
Yes. Mom's been making, working with your partners. Yes. So I think we found out about it about, I would say April.
We had different people, we had the whole community come together. As you guys know, you guys found out about it. We reached out to other OPOs. As you've seen online, it's now worldwide.
It's hitting, it's in 18 different languages of the video. It's going everywhere and he just wants to share his story of what Abby decides to do. She decides to save lives. Yeah.
So I was there when they hugged and I said, everybody watches it through different eyes, right? So I lost a parent and so I saw a grieving parent missing that child. Some of the college students that we work with said, he had a heart attack when he was in college like that's us. So what was it like when you watched, what did you see?
And then what do you think was it that resonated with folks across the world, this video? Just seeing that it could happen to anyone, unfortunately, of how her death was, it wasn't something that was easy and just how he recovered from it. So everything that has happened, he's honoring his daughter so and he is living on through her and just showing that, yeah, she passed away, but she's continuing to save lives and how he continually wants to bring light to it. Let me talk about this.
Let me have other people know what the importance of it. So he's being very selfless and he is really helping the community. Yeah, she left a legacy that's for sure. So obviously you can hear that these families had support not only in the donation world, but from individuals across the world who opened their homes, who opened their hearts to these families and listen, it was a long journey.
So people have been following the story for weeks, right? Bill Bight, 2600 miles and he biked through rain when, you know, not snow because he was, you know, south. But I told him he was like the mailman because he got it done, right? So we're going to listen to Bill.
You can hear how exhausted he is, how emotional it is after completing this biking journey. And you're also going to listen to the families who are impacted by his decision to make this happen. We're on location in Florida and we have Jack, our rope. Mom and dad are by keeps calling on that.
They just love it. They're just going to call him anything, right? So we got dad and mom, you just watched Bill cross the finish line. So emotion now?
Yeah, well, you know, it was very emotional. You know, and every time I see Bill, you know, I think about the slack, right? He's making, being in his house not here. He could be selfish and angry and mad and he's still trying to promote getting life.
And it's such a beautiful thing. And I'm going to do all I can to help. And what about you, Mom? What were those emotions watching your son wait for Bill cross that line?
Well, I'm so grateful for Bill Dernie. And then he completed it and crossed the finish line. So that way he could have thought another chapter that we'll all be involved in. Hopefully like this, when it brought us all together, we'll be friends and we're saving lives.
And last time we talked on you guys said there was some misinformation out there that you believed. You told us a wild story. Yeah, well, I didn't clarify. Well, what it is, you know, back then I heard some myths about this and that, but I'm all for the augmentation.
Matter of fact, me and my whole family have became donors and I've talked to guys that I know can work into being donors. And I'm going to tell you to promote donate to August because it wasn't for that. My son would not be here today. You know, it's a bittersweet situation.
But if he does, he's like Bill say, he's just wasting him. He's just wasting him. He's just going through the ground. So I mean, I think everybody's become donors.
Yeah, make life happen. What do you think it was about this video that's been viewed over a hundred million pounds, translated into more than 18 different languages? What was it about that video, that hug on Father's Day? You think that resonated?
It pulls at people's heartstrings. It shows you that no matter what color you are, what race, nothing. And our hearts goes out, you know, for the family. They lost their love.
Yeah. It don't even matter. Your son is going to call some Germany, Poland, North Three, even talk about organ donation. What was it about that video?
Well, what it is, people ask you to answer, serious, and when Bill hummed and kissed him, oh, you guys, it's real. That's not no accuracy. It's real stuff that happened because my first time, I mean Bill, this is my son. And I'm pretty tough guy, but when I seen Bill hug my son, he started crying.
And this is the thing that's going to hurt. That's going to hurt. And it happened again today. Lori Steele here with Ropey or Jack.
Lots of nicknames, but everybody seems to love you. How are you? Great, actually. I feel good.
It was great being here today. Bill, finishing off his alright. I'm pretty much happy because of that, you know, and just to be, you know, wake up. It's been a whirlwind.
So that hug, listen into your heartbeat. Abby's heartbeat has been seen over a hundred million times, shared in 18 different languages. What do you think it was about that video? It was a very powerful video and I'm very happy with the outcome.
Meeting him on camera has created a wave of people becoming donors, which is the mission, to raise awareness and to raise awareness of Abby Gail and how she saved lives. She did save my life and I am very grateful for that and it's a bill. I've told him several times. I mean, Abby got me shopping because he called me Abby Gail Jack.
So yeah. I'm visiting with the Bill Connor. Folks have been talking about the Bill Connor effect, right? Folks talking positively about organ donation.
Watch you cross the finish line. You've been doing this for seven weeks. What's going on your mind right now? I'm just glad to be here.
Bittersweet. You know, it's one of those things that you, in 2600 miles, no matter how you look at it, even with a cause. It's a tough gig. I wouldn't recommend to do it.
I can't believe I did it, but I did. And Abby and I accomplished what we set out to do and, you know, like I said earlier, the world knows my daughter so her sense of depth isn't going to go to waste. So, but the effect we've had on organ donation is worldwide and I'm proud of her. Today with the guys that I rode with coming into town and it helped a lot.
It was just nice to have somebody to, you know, to finish it off with and about a quarter mile mile out of town. They let me go by myself. So I got to go up with the police escort and that was amazing. I mean, I came into town in about 12 blocks of motorcycles, blinking lights and she, she deserved it.
So, it's cool. We said it's the heartbeat herd around the world. The video viewed over 100 million times, shared in 18 different languages. We're still trying to figure out the impact in other countries.
What was it about that video, that hug? What was it that just stuck a chord with people in your opinion in your mind? I don't know. I think it was a racial line that finally showed some hope and, you know, an outcome, a positive outcome of it.
And Abby and, Abby and Lamont were the ones that did it. It wasn't me. I think that's the positive out of it. And I think a lot of people with everything that's going on nowadays, they hung on to it.
And I've got hundreds, if not thousands of comments and messages from people around the world that are living through our ride, living through Abby and me on this ride. Multiple people that just reached out to thank us for what we were doing and how their families have been affected. And it's been, well, that's phase one. So, phase two, there's going to be a lot coming out of this that we still have work to do.
People are asking, what's next? I know you said you didn't have jobs, sold your house, had a bit, two bins of clothes and a car. So, what's next for Bill? No idea.
It'll show up. It'll show up. Something will come in front of me and Abby will be watching me and see what I do with it. But no, there's going to be opportunity out of this.
And I don't mean that in an arrogant way. Things are going to come out of this. We have an effect around the world like that in less than three weeks and a hundred million views. Obviously, there's something that somebody's going to want more from Abby and then we'll figure out.
It is now time to honor a hero as we do in every podcast. And our hero today is Abigail May Conner. You've heard about her dad, his mission, trying to honor Abby. And he said this is a special edition, so we're doing things a little bit differently.
I learned about Abby. You're watching this father through talking to the recipient. I know that this girl was loved. I know she was beautiful.
She was spunky. She was a firecracker. And she liked to make things happen. Wow, did she ever make things happen?
And she continues to do so. At this point in the podcast, let's pause and say thank you to Abby for the gift of life. No matter how many times I watch the video, listen to the audio, talk to Bill, talk to Robie. I'm just amazed at how far this story has gone.
So we've said it's gone viral and we weren't really sure Kelly went to say it's gone viral, right? So bringing Kelly back in here. But people have seen this across the country, across the world. We've had movement on the registry.
We have people talking positively about donation, which is the goal with each and every story that we tell and with each and every family that we work with. We absolutely want the world to know that there's beauty in these stories and there's life in these stories. And whether you're just seen by friends or family, your story matters to us. They're the 166 employees that are blessed and gifted enough to work with you.
We keep all of you on our hearts and we thank all of our donor families and their families and the recipients that come and join our family. And just know that you make a difference every day about what you've decided to do, what your loved ones decided to do. And your story really truly makes life beautiful and it makes life happen. Here on the podcast, we always say it takes one person to make a difference.
I mentioned that to Bill Connor and he said it's not me, honey. He said it's Abby. She's making this happen. So he's honoring his hero.
He'll continue to honor his hero. Rope will continue to honor Abby as well. But we hope that this inspired you to go out and do something that you don't normally do to help us make life happen. Go out and partner with us and do it today.
And listen, maybe this inspired you to sign up to be a donor. Register me.org. Take action. You can do it.
This is a production of the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency, or LOPA. The Gifted Life is hosted by Lori Steele, Joey Buudro, and Sally Gensrade. Our producers are Kirsten Heines and Shalom Caraway. We are recorded, engineered, and mixed in our Metery Louisiana Studio by Troy Perez.