Gray's Army Foundation

Hello, and welcome to the Gifted Life Podcast, where we have conversations about organ tissue and ideonation and transplantation. You can always find us at the Gifted Life.org. I'm Maurice Neal. I'm Joey Boudreau.

And I'm Nala Schwab. Coming up on The Gifted Life today. We'll be talking about how one family is honoring their hero by sharing his legacy through education and legislation. We'll also be talking about that many of us live in the future, or either in the past, but the special moments are what happens in the present.

All that and more, The Gifted Life, The Gifted Life.org. Hang on. Here on The Gifted Life Podcast, we are honored to introduce you to our new friend, Michelle Temple. Hey, Michelle.

Hey. Hi, guys. Here on The Gifted Life Podcast, we are talking about your son, your hero, Grayson Temple, who became an organ donor who saved lives and is really inspiring a community and a state. And so we just want to learn a little bit about Grayson.

We want you to tell us about your baby. There's a picture that I'm looking at now, and he stands pretty tall over mom, huh? He does. He's about, he was about six, three, about 230 pounds.

Solly boy, or Solly Young Man, I should say. Yes. From Livingston Parish, and it sounds like, you know, outdoorsmen all the way. Oh, my goodness.

That was a, do it yourself for constantly taking in projects from four wheelers, go carts, anything that had a motor that he thought he could work on and rebuild. Wait, wait, wait. Better and faster. Was there a fire with some fire?

Oh, it was there. So we have a deer elderly gentleman in our church who had had Grayson go out and help over on his farm and he had this firebird sitting in the yard for well since the flow of 16. And Grayson said, I mean, can I buy it? And the guy said, well, you know what's not mine, but we'll reach out.

So things happened in the car ended up in my driveway and he tinkered with it and tinkered with it and finally managed to bypass the fuel system and got the car working with a Marine gas tank. Oh, wow. So they missed a few steps along the way because they were impatient boys to want to drive it for the first time. And the hood was also to thank God.

And next thing I know, I heard a backfire and then boom, a flame. I'm trying to record all of this. I had to stop recording to call 911 because the car literally looks and flames in my driveway. So when they went back through it, the grandfather who was a race car mechanic told them, guys, you missed a few steps.

Yeah. Got known as firebird for a while. There's a nickname for you. Do that to each other, right?

The whole town of Watson came out when they saw the black billowing snow and I love 911 and they asked me how far was it from the house? And so the rest of that, you know, I'm not measuring. I'm kind of standing across the street because it is fully engulfed. So we literally lived two blocks from the fire department.

I thought said, if you could just hold this stuff outside, see the black smoke came to us. So actually, when you pass away, we still had the hood from the firebird and I did not want the traditional celebration of life. So we actually stood up the hood and let his friends on it. Oh, I love that firebird.

It is now hanging in our youth center in our church. I love that. I didn't know Grayson personally, not your family personally, but I've been following you guys on Facebook, on social media. I've been following the news stories because you guys have really embraced trying to honor his legacy and trying to educate.

And so you talked about Grayson being involved in football, basketball, baseball, fishing, hunting, just an active outdoorsman and had no idea that there was an underlying issue, right? We did not. He had always been a very healthy child. You know, we went for our yearly or not even yearly.

We went for mandatory vaccinations, the occasional, you know, strept throat, physicals. I guess you can send your leave, physicals, but nothing was ever caught. And apparently he had been having symptoms at least six weeks prior to his passing. The school nurse, they called me six weeks prior to him going into the hospital to let me know he was in her office and was having some type of cardio and some low blood pressure and she had him laid down.

So we might just send him back to class and said he felt better. But Grayson's grandfather actually died at the age of 30 cardiac issues. So after his passing, we did genetic testing and we learned that he had a predisposition to a cardiac arrhythmia. So that began our journey of exploring the family genetics.

And I can tell you, of course firsthand, as a guy, you know, we like to explain things away medically, you know, and with with tachycardia with a low blood pressure, you know, you said he's, you know, there's a lot of sports and things like that. Obviously, you know, one of the other common causes of those two issues, tachycardia, low blood pressure is dehydration. So I would be like, you know, mom, I was just dehydrated. There was nothing, you know, and I can see how that can be from his standpoint, kind of, kind of blown off because that's what we do.

You know, unfortunately, in this case, you know, was there any other, was there anything from that point on, you know, afterwards that told you that gave you any symptoms or any signs or anything from his point of view? So about a week, a week and a half before he passed, I started noticing that he was extremely fatigued. It was nothing to come home after school and take an app, maybe for, you know, an hour or so, but I'm talking, he'd sleep till 730, get up, he'd enter the street back to bed. And then just a few days before we ended up going to the cardiologist, he couldn't even make it from the door to his bedroom.

He'd stop about halfway and plop down in the recliner. And, you know, I asked him, I said, what is going on? He said, I'm just, I'm just tired, mom. And he was the type of kid that was going nonstop.

You know, I can sleep later. This is theory. And so he, the week before we went to the hospital, he actually was home for a couple days with what he was calling a stomach virus. And the third day, I told him, I said, you know, we're, we're passing on the virus at this point, what's going on?

He said, my head, my head just hurts so bad. I said, I can't shake it. So my husband, me, myself, I have high blood pressure. And oftentimes, even though they say headaches are not, you know, a sign of high blood pressure, I know when my head hurts, my blood pressure is probably high.

So I checked him and unfortunately I had a, I mean, well, I guess just say, fortunately, I had a automated cuff and his blood pressure was high. And so was his heart rate, his heart rate was in the 130s, which a normal heart rate should be between 60 and 100. So I had him sit down and rest, takes a deep rest, rechecting about eight minutes later. Well, this time, his blood pressure had bottomed out, but his heart rate was still high.

So I went, got my stethoscope to put this in and I couldn't even count his heart rate. It was just so, I don't know. And turned down, he was an atrial flutter. So called, you know, and he said, I'm fine.

As long as I sit down, I'm fine. So he was, that's when he finally admitted that he had been having the palpitations. And anytime he had to take the stairs at school, he would get dizzy and just feel like he was going to pass out and apparently he didn't tell everyone, but us. So that's when we called the pediatrician who immediately referred us to the cardiologist.

And you know, as a nurse, you, you don't want to, you don't want to think the worst. So I'm thinking, okay, it's a simple rhythm. We'll go, we'll get a feel, be back in a month, you know, reassess and go home. So I never imagined in a million years that he would have been sent straight to PFCU.

I read a quote from you that really touched my mom of heart. I just think that I'm overreacting that you were just thinking that you were overreacting. I think we all do that like as a time to call the doctors. Not like is it serious?

What do I do? And you nursing background for you? That really struck home for me. Well, and you know, we talk about it as nursing parents as, you know, my theory was always if it's not a half-ever, if there's not a bone sticking out or not blushing blood, we're not running to the doctor for every simple little sniple and, you know, sub toe.

And actually a few weeks prior to them passing, I got a call from his friends one night that they were on their way to the ER with him. I think we're pretty sure he broke his foot chasing cows. I love this kid. Off to the back of the channel we go to, you know, it's glidictory and turned out it was just a nasty sprain.

Because they came out with little crutches for someone who was about fat too. And I looked at the girl and said, that's not going to work. We're not going to have to get it. So we don't have anybody in for his size.

I'm going to need to go with such a plumb. I was trying to sit down. So we finally got some first, you know, first and then he didn't have to walk all hunched back. But yeah, so honestly he was never, you know, with the kid with stitches or he just honestly, when we would call the doctor for an appointment, he was the type of child that was like, oh, you haven't been here in three years.

We need you to come in as a new patient. You know, he never ever complained. And if he complained, he was thick. You know, I mean, I'm blessed that all of my children have been that way.

So yeah, you take for even my best friend. We talked about him and everything that's going on with him. And you know, she, she's like, I don't know. It just, you know, she kind of thought dehydration too.

And I said, you know, but he drinks all the time. And he was not one I ever had to worry about being dehydrated. He was always drinking. I was beginning to think he was happening because he was all being drinking water.

So anyway. So you mentioned, you know, that he had, he presented with a flutter. You were expecting to take a pill, go home, follow back up in a month, but instead you're up in the PICU. So if you can take us, take us back to that and how scary that was, I guess, for you, you know, obviously.

You know, again, being a nurse, I knew how simple a cardio version could be. So the plan was do the cardio version. Go home. The cardio version the first night.

And for those who don't know, cardio version is when they go in and shut the heart into hopefully a normal rhythm. It didn't work. They tried it three times that first night. So they started to mull in an anti rhythmic.

And that actually that first night he developed a fever and come to find out. He had stripped her, but it often get asked, did he have COVID? No, it was negative. Had he ever had COVID, not that I'm aware of and no, he had not had the vaccine.

So fast forward to the third day. Dr. came in said she felt like he was therapeutic with the anti-rhythmia. He had tried to convert during the night to the actual flutter.

I mean, he was kind of converting during the night from flipping it, flapping it from the age of flutter to a fib. And occasionally they would get a regular rhythm that he wouldn't stay. So the plan was the third day to try the cardio version again that evening. And if that didn't work, then we would be sent home with anti-rhythmia and sent to a cardiac electrophysiologist and your woman who had been advising on the case.

So the plan was to be home about Friday. This was Wednesday. That morning he had been told not to get out of bed because he was having the orthostatic hypertension. Anytime he changed positions or his heart, I mean, his blood pressure would just spot him out in his heart rate.

Looks like almost a 200. But for him to visit, come to visit. So we stepped out just to give him some gas. And when we swapped to visitors, we found the entire medical team in his room.

He got out of bed and fallen and punched out. And busted his head. So they were trying to glue him back together and taking downstairs to their CT. Just to rule out any kind of bleed or fracture.

He was alert. He knew what had happened. He knew where he was. He was trying to get out and turn the heat on because he was cold.

But I could see in that moment that this color was wrong. And he was looking blue around the mouth. I stepped away because I didn't want him to see me like this. I knew in my heart something was wrong.

I just didn't know what. So I took him downstairs to do the CT. I started cleaning up his room. And within just a matter of minutes, the PA from the cardiology group came up to let us know he had coded.

And he actually told them right before. If he didn't feel right that something was wrong and he felt like he was going to pass out again. So he coded right there on the CT table. And they worked on him for almost an hour.

And finally, he asked to go to be with him. And at first, they said, I don't know. They're still working on it. And I said, you don't understand.

You can take me. You can find my way. And they allowed me to be in with the code team and be right there with you. And you know, you just, you pray that you could say something that will bring it back.

But I knew when I sat down and held his hand and he was gone. And the doctors and the code team kept working and working. And I finally just said, you know what I know that he's been down too long. And that even if you get him back right now, he will not be the same person and he will not want to live that way.

My husband came in at that time. He prayed over the team and someone picked me up out of the floor and put me in a wheelchair and took us out. And they called it. That's what I saw.

Michelle, I just want to tell you thank you for sharing the story with us. You know, when you originally had said, when we were kind of doing our introductions, that you may cry. And I mean, this is such a, such a huge part of your life. So we're grateful that you took us to that hard place.

And also crying with you. Yes. I don't know if you heard the sniffle. There's no dry eyes.

We know about Grayson because of you and your work. Grayson Temple was for Ensign's called him Gray. He was a junior and he became a hero in December 8th, 2021. He was 16 years old.

You and your husband have created the Gray's Army Foundation, a nonprofit. And you want to take his story, you want to take his legacy and you want to save lives. Tell us why you created this nonprofit and what your hope is. So Gray's Army is our mission is to raise awareness of the Sun Cardiac arrest.

And part of Sun Cardiac arrest is the number one cause of death in our student athletes. But it doesn't just affect athletes. It can affect anyone. We all have a heart.

And, you know, the thing is there's not a lot of awareness, at least in this area. And I don't want us to have to be reactive. Let's be proactive and do the things that we know that need to be done. And one thing that we have done recently on June the 10th, Governor Edward Sandin to law.

The Gray's and Temple Act, which requires all coaches, trainers, school nurses, volunteer or paid to take a yearly in service to 12 minute video. That helps them recognize the signs and symptoms of Sun Cardiac arrest. And people say, Oh, well, they know CPR. I understand they know CPR, but I want them to be able to recognize the signs and symptoms before so that they can remove that player or that student from school to end up being assessed by MD before being able to return.

In our case, you know, I didn't, it was just discounted as dehydration and I never thought to having checked out, you know, but just like with the Concussion Act, if a student experiences a concussion during play, they have to be removed from play to return assessed by a doctor. Before they can return to play. So same thing with Sun Cardiac arrest, we will, we do plan to go back in a minute next year to add that clause that if a student experiences any kind of painting spill or passes out or becomes incapacitated during a sport that they cannot return to play until they are cleared by a physician. We didn't unfortunately get that on there this year, but we just recently signed on with an AED manufacturer and hope to be distributing AEDs to different organization schools, gyms, whoever are in the way.

Gyms, whoever is in need and maybe can afford them. So, you know, we will ask whomever is in need to possibly do a small fundraiser to kind of help offset the cost. Unfortunately, they are still, you know, several hundred dollars, but that is one of our goals of the foundation. We do have literature.

We have co-branded with another organization called Simon's Heart. They're out of Philadelphia and they are actually the first state who passed the Sun Cardiac arrest Prevention Act. And so since then, 16 other states have followed suit with us now being 17. So one thing, you know, they did all the legwork for you.

It was just for us getting a representative to carry our veal and representative Ballet Hodges was more than willing to go to bat for us. Scott Arshino with the Louisiana Athletic Trainers Association. He has been right there for us. So it's been amazing.

I know the Board of Education came after me at first because they thought that we were requiring teachers to have to teach this, but we reworded it and amended it so that they would know that it was a very important thing. We did it so that they would know that it was just an in service for coaches, trainers, school nurses, but goodness knows we don't want to put anymore on the teachers and they already have. But you know, our goal is just to get in front of as many people as possible. We had a very generous donor give us mannequins and trainers so that we can go and cheat chance on CPR.

We try to make it fun. We do what we call a chain of survival relay. And we just try to get them to understand the sense of urgency of every second counts. And the quicker you can get in there and start CPR, you increase that person's chances are babbled.

So we, again, we have the literature now. We have our website. We've been trying to get scheduled with, again, as many organizations and schools and churches who ever will let us come and speak. You know, we're out there not going to go on doors and even thought about just taking it to the streets and bringing my mannequins and going to hang it out.

I guess what I think you could do it. I follow you on social media, I follow the local news stories. I mean, you really have a community of support, people who just love this kid as much as you do and they want to honor his legacy as well. And so they stand behind you.

They help you. I was reading a story about the flood of 2016, which totally impacted lives of folks in South Louisiana. And so he was a helper. He was helping others.

And it just seems like that's just who he was the more I learned about him. I'm like, what a great kid. Yes. Yes.

You know, Michelle, it's you kind of taken us like we just don't even have enough time to talk about all the incredible things about, you know, about Grayson and about the things you're doing. And you know, you shared who Grayson is and he was full of life. And then you shared the end of his life and how what you didn't tell us how you decided donation was the right thing for Grayson. So I know you and I probably have talked about this personally, but my stepfather, we always call him pop, but he received he was a heart recipient back actually the year that Grayson was born.

And you know, with that heart donation from this family in Missouri, we were able to have him around for 11 more years. And Grayson, I just need Grayson into ICU to see when he was two months old. But we still have a picture of his little heads to get out of the hospital again. But so my, so much that bad was a heart recipient.

And right before his passing, we had moved to archive the blood. And I had started teaching my boys about just how to take care of him as he was declining and checking his blood sugars and just things to look for, you know, if he was starting to look sick. And so anyway, when Grayson got his partner, the lady had asked him, you know, do you want to be an organ donor as they asked everybody? And he didn't even hesitate.

He said, yes. And so, you know, you never, you never imagined actually being the donor. But when he passed, everything was so crazy. When I went home from the hospital, I looked at my husband and I said, I don't know what they can take.

I said, but he wanted to be an organ donor. I said, obviously, I know they won't be able to take the vital organs. And so we called back to the house supervisor and she said, absolutely. She said, I'll make the phone call.

So y'all, I actually initiated that conversation. Yes. Which is unusual. You know, we knew, and it's not something people want to talk about, but we knew that we didn't want to bury him.

We knew that we wanted to do as much good for the world as we could with what was valuable. And, you know, everything about planning your child's funeral. But, you know, we did the cremation. And thank God that we did have a burial policy.

People don't think about that either. So when we were very blessed that we had been through enough, I guess, of life that we brought ahead. And again, you never hoped to have to use that little $10,000 burial policy that you might take out with your life insurance. But I can't encourage people enough to number one, consider organization number two, take out those policies, even if it's just a matter of policy, because I see so many people, you know, when you're in that moment of tragedy, you just, that's the last thing you want to have to worry about.

But, and I know some people think about, I don't want to talk about my family member, but, you know, my children went to see him and I have to say they spoke nothing but great thing about the way, you know, everything is preserved. And, you know, it's not the past job that so many people think of. And, you know, the way I look at it. I mean, I can take them with me, but why not save lives with them?

Yeah. You know, Michelle, if I could come through this microphone and hug you, I would. I'm not sure if you're a hother. I mean, from a mother to a mother from an employee of LOPA, you just hit on so many things that, you know, our world needs.

And I think you said a beautiful quote. And, you know, we just knew that the world needed this. You know, Grayson was full of life. He continues to give life.

And you and your husband continue to share life by going out and really educating people on so many different topics. You're definitely trying. Well, y'all are doing it. You went straight into trying to help others after the loss of your son.

And so we just want to say thank you for what you've done and what you continue to do. I just think so many people would love to hear more about Grace Army. So where can we find you? We are actually on Facebook and Instagram and Grace Army Foundation.

Our website is www.GraceArmyFoundation.org. And we actually have a TikTok page, Grace Army Foundation. So, yes, we, you know, and we're located right here in Watson. We still have us on in the lab at school district.

You know, we hope to be in this community for a long time. We do have an older daughter and her family gets here with a one-year-old grandbaby. So we are, we are very invested in protecting hearts and just raising awareness of sudden cardiac arrest because even it's even been linked to SIDS. And one thing that I read that comes from me was, and it's so true, is that, you know, we get our heart screened as a baby in the hospital.

And unless you have issues, it's not screened again until you're an adult or there's even more issues where I just read an article this week, where now the American Pediatric Association is recommending the screening starting in three, every three years, starting in the sixth grade. So they would catch you six, ninth and twelfth. And just like with Louisiana Pediatric Cardiology Foundation, who offers the three heart screenings here to student athletes, they catch you in ninth and 11th grade. But I love now that the American Pediatric Association has come back and said, let's start in the sixth grade, ninth grade and twelfth grade.

So I'm encouraging parents, as your kids are going into middle school, high school and into your senior year, you know, if there's any cardiac history or if someone in your family has died unexpectedly before the age of 50, get those heart screenings, get, you know, talk to your kids, earn that trust, don't want to be talking to just their friends, you know, let them go comfortable with coming to you and saying, hey, something's not right. I'd rather you take them to the doctor and then say, oh, it might just be asthma or a little anxiety or just whatever it could be, you know, versus ignoring it and it turned out to be tragic. I've actually had a mother reach out to me the other day and she'd have taken her son, mother for boys to the heart doctor and turns out that they both had issues and because of the cardiac history in their family and grace and story. She went and got them checked out and then, you know, they're going to have to be further evaluated and we'll have to be followed by cardiologist.

So, and then I had another mom, she did take her son because she started noticing he was constantly short of breath and his heart was raised and it turned out he had asthma. I mean, thank goodness it wasn't his heart, but at least she found out and she reached out to me because she said, you know, I could help with think about what he kept saying. And even his cardiologist, the other day, emailed me and said that she's come across several families now, thanks to us that have come in to be seen and, you know, either new Grayson or new of our story. So, I know we're making an impact, but my goal is to make a huge impact.

You are your mom on a mission. We always talk about, you know, one person making a difference, just one person with a passion and trying and pushing. And that's that's you honoring Grayson, which is incredible. We hope that you can follow Grayson's army, watch them grow, watch the things that they will do.

And we thank you for your time. We thank you for sharing Grayson with us. And we appreciate you sharing your talents to save more lives. I appreciate you guys, Nala and Laurie and Joey.

I'm just honored that you would choose us to talk about, you know, him giving life and our foundation. Our story doesn't end here. We hope I have several more chapters to go. Absolutely.

Definitely be rooting for you guys and what organ donation actually my son, my youngest son the other day, got his permit and gladly put that organ donor heart on his permit. So, thank you for all y'all do. Yes, ma'am. Thank you for all you guys do.

Michelle will be talking to you again. You have an open invitation to the gift of life. We know that you guys will continue to do great things. Here on the gift of life podcast, we take a moment from mental health.

Yeah, this time, Laurie, I heard we talk about presence. So I'm all about it. Oh, I like this. Okay.

So we're really talking about we're going to talk about grounding, which keeps us or brings us back to the present. A lot of times people are future tripping as what some people say. Are they worried or anxious about what's ahead of them? Or either they're thinking about the past and regrets and shame.

And so this encourages us constantly to bring ourselves back to the present during our day. Sometimes that's hard to do, Nala. Yes, it is. And that's why I have some techniques for us.

Okay. So like my favorite is called the four box breathing. You might have heard the four by four breathing, equal breathing, four square breathing, but this is a type of yoga, I don't know, controlling your breath. But it's so powerful that the Navy seals actually adopted it and incorporated into their training.

Nice. And so this is my favorite. So I'll just share how you do it. But you're just actually breathing in for four seconds.

You hold for four seconds. You breathe out for four seconds. And then you breathe in for four seconds. So you just do that continually so we can even practice it for a minute.

I was also thinking, oh, my watch, you know, it says, take a moment and it helps you breathe on there. It does a lot lately. You know, it does so much for your body. It slows your heart rate down.

And if you think about it, the Navy seals can use this because this actually helps them focus when they're about to have to do something very important. But it takes practice. So it isn't something that you can just practice here at the podcast. You have to continually do it.

You want to do it when you're relaxed. So your body, when you start doing this, it understands. Let's go into a calming mode. So if you want to just do it real quick, we'll do a square.

I think of it as a square. So we're going to breathe in two, three, four, hold two, three, four, out two, three, four, hold two, three, four. And I'm hoping our listeners will practice this because it's just very helpful. And nobody has to see you doing it in public.

You can practice it in the mirror. But most importantly, you can carry it anywhere with you. And so there's some other quick. Before you get on to the other.

So of course, my clinical mind goes very specifically to ventilator control, since that's we work with ventilators. And that's basically PRVC type mechanism of breathing. So as you know, we help regulate the respiratory for our patient through the ventilator and as pressure regulated volume control ventilation. And that's basically that it's a box that you see it on the screen on the ventilator.

And it's a box that you go up and then you hold, you know, and then you go down, you hold and it basically looks like it all looks like a box when you have it on a. Oh, nice. So you have better oxygen when you're doing it. I mean, that's the point.

I don't want to comment down. I don't want to keep the body like for somebody who is on a respiratory ventilator. Would it keep the body more stable because the oxygen is going in and out. It is you.

So when you do so when you do have oxygen issues, you have an increased amount of oxygen floating through the inspiratory and then oxygen while you're holding for that time. You know, so it's a significant amount of without having to put a whole lot of pressure on the lungs, a lot of oxygen floating through the lungs in that time frame. And then of course you have to exhale for your carbon dioxide and so you can regulate your pH, but that whole extended oxygen time helps you oxygenation. That's how we do when we have poor oxygenation.

It's one of our techniques that we do. Well, that's because for this, like we can go into the fight flight freeze mode and when you start regulating your breathing, it's slowing your body down and it's teaching your body. Hey, this is not an emergency because we just do that naturally sometimes and we can train ourselves to always be in the fight or the flight or the freeze mode. So this is extremely helpful and you can teach your kids.

Okay, so a couple other grounding techniques we'll move on. So there is the a lot of people know the 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, which is you look around and you try to say in your head or say out loud five things you see. 4 things you feel, 3 things you hear, 2 that you smell and some people say 1 that you taste, which could be almonds since we've been eating almonds, but another thing is one thing you're good at or maybe one thing that you're grateful for. That's an easy one.

Nobody has to see you doing that, but it kind of pulls you back to the right now right here because you when you're making decisions, you want to be present and you want to be present for the person in front of you. And then there's you can also one is put both feet on the ground and you can draw an imaginary line around your feet. Nobody has to say you doing this. Nobody has to know that you are anxious or you are nervous.

This is just all things that you can keep in your toolbox. Basically just carrying it around with you. So if you can't name it and you don't practice it and you don't use it, it doesn't do any good. So if you think if you need to hang a picture, I mean, you're going to find a hammer.

I'll say screwdriver. I don't use it either one. I'll use my middle help to my toolbox. But yeah, so it's really you can Google grounding techniques.

They're always there. Tons of them, but you have to find what works for you. So I hope that you'll practice the breathing technique and let me know what works for you. I was trying to rush that breathing.

That's what I focus on. Slow down, slow it down. Right. But I like that.

Okay, I can do those. That's easy to do. And we can all practice together. Maybe you have a topic you'd like for us to cover here at the Gifted Life.

All you have to do is email us at info at the Gifted Life. Godward. Hey guys, it's time for the question and answer segment. And today, how about you kick us off there now?

All right. So Lori, I have a question for you. How can I learn more about volunteering to teach others about the gift of life? Okay, probably my favorite question.

So if you're not in Louisiana, check with the OPO near you. But if you're in Louisiana, I mean, we will work with you. Please, please, please sign up to be a volunteer. You can do that on our website, lopa.org slash volunteer.

It's very easy to do. We'll ask you to sign up. It doesn't obligate you to anything, but then it'll open up a new world where you see all the opportunities. And so some people, maybe they're not into public speaking, maybe you're into art or maybe you're into writing or maybe you're into your podcast.

And so we work with your skill set, what you're comfortable with, and we devise a program for you. And you will be learning from those volunteers who have been doing it with us. We work with those donor families, recipients, those who are waiting, families, anybody who has a seat at the table that's been impacted by donation, or not. If you're just wanting to help people learn, you will be on our team and you can help us make life happen.

It's a beautiful process. It's an easy process. We're very flexible. We love for people to join our team.

And all you have to do is click lopa.org and sign up today. And we'd love to have you. Lori, I want to sign up. We've already signed you up.

We've all told you. Yeah. But it's usually fun. We're out there.

We do all kinds of activities on the path of remembrance. We're releasing butterflies. We have volunteers for that. We go into schools.

We go into churches. We go into driving schools. We do health fairs. We do luncheon learns.

So basically, we do it all. And we need help. And we'd love for you to join us. Great guys.

We love these questions. Please keep them coming. If you have a question, give us a call 504-648-3477. In every episode of the gift of life, we honor a hero.

Today's hero is Grayson Lane Temple. And we learn about Grayson from his family. Grayson, Gray Lane Temple was born April 20, 2005. He was the first son born to Dale in Michelle Temple.

Grayson was born at 37 weeks and spent the first eight days of his life in NICU. Upon discharge, other than respiratory issues, his first year of life, he was a very happy, healthy baby. As he grew up, he became active in sports, including basketball, baseball, and football. He enjoyed fishing, hunting, and the outdoors.

He was a left-handed, fun-loving jokester with a big heart. He was a picture of health. He stood 6'2", and was 230 pounds. Grayson could be found working on a motor of most any kind, welding, and hanging out with his friends.

Grayson loved aggravating his older sisters, Corinne and Sarah Payton and his younger brother, Jacob. Grayson was a part of the homeless ministry and cooking team in his church. He loved to experiment with new cooking recipes. Grayson was an organ donor and continues to give to others, even in his passing.

As of today, he has given the gift of sight to two people. And now we pause and say thank you to Grayson for the gift of life. And that is episode 192 of The Gifted Life. Thanks so much for listening, guys.

And remember you can register anytime as an organ, eye, and tissue donor at registerme.org. Big thank you to Michelle Temple for coming on and sharing Grayson with us how amazing was that. And also for starting the Great Army Foundation, which is really bringing awareness to something that's really not talked about enough. Shining a light on the healthcare problem has seen so many fatalities throughout the year in sudden cardiac arrest.

Great things that they're doing. Grace Army. So great. And still growing.

The best place to find us guys at our website, the Gifted Life. Don't work. Listen there and find links to listen on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Spotify, iHeartRadio, or wherever you listen to podcast. If you listen on Apple Podcast, please leave us at 5 star rating.

It really helps others to find our podcast. We're on Facebook too, guys. The Gifted Life Podcast. We're also on Twitter and Instagram at GiftedLifePod.

Our ask is that you go out and do something you wouldn't normally do to help us make life happen. Until next time. This is a production of the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency, or LOPA. The Gifted Life is hosted by Lori Steele, Joey Bujro, and Nala Schwab.

Our executive producer is Kirsten Hines. Producer is Shalom Caraway. Intern is Rebecca Rannam. And we are recorded, engineered and mixed, in our Covington, Louisiana studio by Troy Perez.