Organ Donation Keeps Communities Together

Hello and welcome to the Get to Life podcast where we have conversations about organ tissue and I know nation you can always find us at the get to life dot org. I'm Lori Steele and this is a special episode of the get to life with a special guest host. How do you like that chucks, Denson? I love that.

Doug is with more of the Mississippi organ recovery agency. What do you do there? I am the director of community services and relations. I've been with the agency for about 10 years now and love this job.

And Chuck is just one of our partners when it comes to making life happen. Thanks for teaming up with us. Just to let everyone know Chuck and I want you to know that we are recording this episode during the coronavirus pandemic and being socially responsible by recording very remotely. Right, Chuck?

Not six feet away, two states away. I think that should cover it. We are so safe. That's what that means.

So if our sound quality is a little off, we do apologize. But we are grateful that we have this technology in place so we can continue to share the importance of organ eye and tissue donation and transplantation. So Chuck, what do we have planned for them today? Lori, on this episode, a very special episode, especially to those of us here at the Mississippi organ recovery agency, we're talking to David Wilbanks, the father of Walker Wilbanks, who was a multiple organ donor in 2014.

David was initially against donation until he found out his son had already made the decision. Wow. Already have chills here. You ready, Chuck?

I'm ready. I'm ready to get into this. Here we go. David, thank you for taking time to be with us on the Gifted Life podcast today.

Your story is so unique and so incredible to the world of organ donation and to transplantation and live saved and legacies that we've talked about at numerous times about Walker. Give us a little bit of information. Tell us Walker's story a little bit about who he was as a young man growing up. Well, Walker was a special young man, very caring, giving young man, very self-assigned.

He never really felt too much of a self-thought on a lot of others. And Walker was a high school student at Jackson Prep. At the time of his accident, he was playing football at Jackson Prep on a Friday night. It was August 22nd in 2014, a very hot day.

But a very memorial day from a standpoint that Jackson Prep at that time was ranked number one in the state in the private school sector and then Oxford High School, a five-day school in Oxford, Mississippi, ranked number one in the public school rankings. And they were playing first game of the season. So Walker was a junior with a lot of anticipation that season wanted to make sure that he was going to start in that game. And he had won the starting role with even to tackle and was very excited that he was going to play starting his first football game as a prep patriot, especially playing Oxford.

So that night, very, very good game. Oxford did come out victorious. I played a one 28 to 21 in that game. But at halftime, Walker went into the locker room and when he came back out, he had a cramp in his calf and coached back, went a little bench.

And of course, he was on the bench. I was running to get some gatorades to drink. And the doctor called me over to the sideline and said, you know, Walker's complaining of a headache. And if it persists, I don't think we maybe need to go to the hospital and just haven't checked out.

So I guess it's about 10 minutes more with the game and the student up, the doctor came and got me said, let's just go ahead and take him to the hospital. And so he didn't believe we needed an ambulance. So we put him in the white car and took him to Baptist Hospital here in Jackson. And he kind of can make it a story.

He gets faster. As we got him into his room and got to the hospital, he basically, he had a brain stroke and they ruled it hypodetremia. And that Friday night that he passed, we put him a license board and he was a license board till the following Monday, which Chuck knows and that that three days that what was a license board was just in the city of Jackson. You had schools, Jackson Academy, Masses Central, and of course Jackson Pro up in schools.

These kids were praying for Walker. At one time, the Mississippi Baptist Hospital security came and got me and said, look, we've got over 500 kids in this parking lot. Y'all have got to make some kind of an house or do something. We can't have as many people here.

And with the help of some of my doctor friends, they felt like maybe at this time, Walter Swellie was going down to the University Hospital, but they were better suited to treat him. And we did that Saturday afternoon. We did move him. And during the course of that Saturday evening through Monday at lunch, the same thing was happening again.

These kids were coming and are friends. I mean, again, they were praying for Walker. And on Sunday, they would allow us to have visitors come in and say, Walker, and there was just praying over Walker. And just, it was just unbelievable.

So on that Monday, there was a certain test they had to do. There was a doctor that was that would need to do the certain test on Walker to just see if he was brain dead or not. And that doctor was out of town that whole weekend. He came back and found him on Monday and had one on a cheek performed the test.

And Sheila and I were waiting in his office for him. He walked down the hall to the test, came back and he sat down there and said, yes, you know, Walker is brain dead. And of course Sheila and I, we felt like that was where this was leading, but it just finally sunk in. And I thought this woman that was in that room with us was actually a nurse, but she was actually a care worker for Mississippi William recovery.

And she went to Sheila and I said, have y'all ever, would y'all consider donating Walker Walker's organs? And this is what the story, this is where this whole story starts. And this is what's going to explain what kind of kid Walker was. I sat there and I looked, my first answer was, I do not want anybody to cut my baby over.

And you know, I got a, you know, bear with me. So Sheila looked at me and she says, no, Walker won't be an organ donor. I said, do what? She said, yeah, Walker told me he won't be an organ donor.

I said, I've never heard this. When did this happen? She said, probably a year ago, a year ago, summer when he got his driver's license, I was cooking dinner one night and he was sitting there looking as licensed and said, Mom, I want to be an organ donor. I thought I checked the box.

It's not on my driver's license. And Sheila just kind of listened to him. She said, okay, he says, no, Mom, I want to be an organ donor. And he looked at her and said, Mom, why don't you know what you know about her?

She says, no, he says, Mom, it's nothing ever happens to me. You make sure my orders are donated. If you're silly not to, you need to be an organ donor. And of course Sheila sat there and said, well, this is not something I don't really want to talk about.

She said, no, Walker, Walker, please make sure I'm an organ donor. And almost a year to that time, we're faced with a decision to donate Walker's organs. Well, they wouldn't have to decision now. Walker already made that decision to be an organ donor.

And I don't, with Mora and Chuck and I, as I told the story, we wouldn't be where we are right now if it had not been for that conversation that Walker had that night with his mom. David, I appreciate you taking the time to share the story. I'm having chills on this side listening to you and listening to the turn of events. Walker, positive impact on our world, not only through donation, but in the communities that we continue to see this ripple effect.

But as you were talking, I got into the community, we do presentations. How did Walker learn about donation? Was it at the driver's license place when he first went to get his license? Was it a school presentation?

Do we even know? We don't know. I can only, you know, know my son. The only thing I can think of is that when he went to his driver's license, that he probably was sitting in Mississippi.

When you go to get driver's license, they can take you an hour. It can take you to the house. It's getting what I've just got to do when he was sitting in line reading every little bit of information that was on the walls or something for it. But he saw that.

I don't think, I don't know of anything that ever happened in school or sometimes, you know, the event that he saw that, that brought attention to it. David, when all this was kind of unfolding in front of you, you even went to the kids that were part of his core group too and talked to them about that. Didn't you? You said there's an opportunity here and you consulted with his friends.

Is it that true? Yes, it is. It is. We talked about it and they all, you know, there was a core group of boys that were his best friends and eventually came to Pawel Pierce also, but we talked about it.

And they all told me, you know, you know, do Walker would want this. This would be this is definitely a decision that he would, he would want to do and he would be proud for it. David, I love listening to you talk about Walker. I can hear the love.

I can hear the passion and your voice and we're all about learning here. So when you weren't for donation, was there like a certain myth that you believe that has now been dispelled or was that was there a reason why? Well, I didn't realize, you know, when Walker passed, it was just, you know, you're in a, you're in a fog that whole week, two weeks, three weeks after, and you know, the organ donation thing really didn't didn't sink in. You know, my wife and I talked about a couple of weeks after, you know, kind of curious, I wonder where her, you know, who got saved kind of thing, but we did, it was just conversation.

And there was an event that happened, I guess, Chucky was like, it's one, his two wall heroes at a university hospital that happened probably two months, three months after Walker passed. And I was sitting there talking to Chuck. And in just general conversation with Chuck, you know, this is pretty cool. You don't have this and Walker gets this picture on this wall with other organ donors that people can see.

I said, I'm proud of him. And Chuck, what it means is David, you don't realize what Walker has done. And I was like, what do you mean? He says, he didn't just say five lives.

He saved five families. He saved communities. He let people know that prayer does work. And I kind of sat back and started thinking about it.

And when she and I got caught that day, I told Sheila, I said, you know, I've always said, if there's anything that we could do to make this positive for Walker, I would do it. And I said, you know, I think we'd get more involved with more. And from that day on that Chuck, now that conversation, it really did hit me. Because I am a man of faith.

And it made me realize that they, that there were five communities, probably five churches in our areas that were praying for these people to get an organ. And they saw the prayer works. I mean, people, I'm going back to when when Walker passed, there were prayer meetings and individuals that kids were accepting Christ because of Walker's death. It made them realize that they were, you know, they better get themselves right.

And Chuck and I told that I get the ripples that when you throw that rock in the water, the ripples start going out. And as we get through this interview, I've got stories about how the ripples are keeping on going today. So yes, there was the event that we had at University Hospital and Walker's picture was put on the wall here. That was, that's what put me into this, this, this role of trying to be an ambassador for more.

David, and an ambassador, you've been, and there's more to this story too that we'll get into, especially with one of the recipients, Sarah in Mobile, Alabama, that I want, we certainly want to share and how that connection has been made with your family. But I do want to circle back for a second on Sheila's involvement in this, the mama, the mama who spoke up at that moment and how impactful and how important that was not only to your family and to Walker's legacy, but to those waiting. And have you and Sheila talked about that privately at any point, not that you would want to share anything privately, but maybe some public thoughts that she would be okay with sharing? Well, I mean, the thing about that conversation that she had, I mean, we knew that God was getting this, that conversation happened was getting this ready.

We didn't know it, but God was getting this ready to make that decision. Because again, I couldn't make that decision with Walker made it unless God in Walker made it. And God put it in a Walker's heart that summer night in 2013 to make that decision. Now, you know, as a mama, and you know, Sheila very well, you know, that was definitely a conversation she didn't want to talk about.

I mean, no parent wants to talk with her child about possible death, but I mean, that was a guy thing. There's no doubt about it. Wow, I just love this story, David, and again, taking the, thank you for taking the time to share with us. So we keep talking about Walker's legacy, the impact that he has made recipients, you guys reached out.

Have you met thoughts? We have, we received after Walker passed, we received a letter from the, I guess it was the sister or mom of the one recipient, which was a, at that time was a 55 year old man in Florida. And then we, through Facebook, found out who the liver recipient was in Georgia at that time, we were five year old men at that time. But we have not heard from the heart recipient or had contacted.

And the heart recipient was a 14 year old boy from Louisiana that received his heart. And I will tell a quick story that I think is that I think Walker would think was cool. Talking with Chuck at the University Hospital, and I guess I, we found out, I don't know how to conversation, I guess, five years ago, but that's when we found out that it was a 14 year old boy. No, excuse me, let me go back.

We met, we met one of the doctors who, who was involving and removing Walker's organs from the donations. And, but I asked them about the heart. He said, I did not do the heart. He said the doctor from Little Rock Arkansas flew in here and took Walker's heart removed Walker's heart and took it with him back to Arkansas.

And I thought I was losing on again. He said, he did, the boy was losing on how to come to Arkansas. And I said, how did that all happen? He said, it happened by helicopter.

And I said, what are we going to do? We got to fly in the helicopter. So, that's not nice. But that's not what I got.

So, you know, that night, we got to call and I'm going to see him around. But we got to call from the nurse at university. I guess it was about 1130 on August 25th at that Monday night when all the procedures were loaded, what we've been doing. And it was like 1130.

And my man, I can just think, you know, there goes Walker and the helicopter taking off from university at midnight on August 25th, going into the morning of the 26th, Florida, Arkansas. I just thought that was my man was pretty cool. But I would say, I would love, you and I, we have not found a way to do it or the words to write a letter to try to make a whole recipient. But it's on our list.

But the one that we met that has really, it's been amazing is a Sarah Thornberry. She's from the Gulf, Georgia, Alabama area. And she got offers pancreas in Waikidney. And Sarah, at the time, was a 32 year old mom.

She had her husband, Donald, had two kids, both adopted. At that time, one of them was close to right at one year old, and the other was right at two and a half years old. And Sarah was a type one diabetic. She had chronic getting to these hypertension.

She was on dialysis. I mean, she was basically, she was done. And these adoption, adopting the kids, people in her community in the church are like, you sure this is what you want me to do. And they're Donald, very strong thing.

So no, guys got a plan. We're going to adopt these kids. And they did. So we did go letter from her.

And thank you, that's, you know, it was a very, that letter right there was a, it was tough to read from a standpoint the way she wrote it was so sweet. I mean, she's, I'm sitting here on my bed so thankful for, for the, or she didn't know it was Walker. Well, let me re- she didn't know it was Walker, I'll get to that second, but she was saying how it was bittersweet. Here she is.

She's, her life has been saved, but we had lost our left hand. Yeah, she just did a beautiful job of thanking us for the decision that Walker made. But so Walker was a baseball player and Walker played baseball with some really good guys, a Jackson for up one was Jake Megan was Jake went on and played this, Mr. Say, now he's playing with the Lord and then when Jake's grandmother was down in Gulf Shores and a store that Sarah Mom worked at, worked at, and this was in January of 2015.

And they got into a conversation because Jake's grandmother commented on a jacket or something that Sarah's mom had on in the store. And she said, where'd you get that? She said, well, I bought a little store in Jackson, Mississippi. She said, really, I'm from Jackson.

Where were you in Jackson? She said, my daughter was getting a organ donation back last August. And Jake's mom just stopped and said, what? She said, when we were there, she said, we were there on August 25th getting a kidney in Frankly's.

And she says, that was been Walker and Sarah's mom, they didn't, they didn't go back. Sarah's mom and family were here with Sarah, got Walker's organs. They were watching the TV that morning, I mean, because this was a whole hope for the news. They literally, who's working there for getting.

So they started talking and put two and two together. And I was at a prep, when the press started, I didn't miss a game. That's the, I was every game that was always for taking Walker's jersey with them every game, hanging it up in the dugout. Just, I mean, they had 22 on Walker baseball number 22.

They had it on the side of his head. I mean, it was just they, they, they were really getting Walker the treatment. I don't remember him, but, uh, Jake's mother came up to me and said, I got someone I talked to about. She says, I know who got Walker's pancreas in the kidney.

She said, do you want to know? I said, oh, absolutely. She showed me a picture of Sarah that they, Sarah's mom from Facebook from his with her. So I went home and told, so she looked where she was like, I wish I'd been there.

I wish, you know, so, if any, any, mom and dad would be part of Facebook, Facebook, so we, we passed there on her husband's Facebook and so forth. But fast forward, I guess it would have been the balloon release in that swimming truck that that we, I guess, we were, they, we invited Sarah, uh, husband and her and her mom and the two kids were invited to that event. We had never met them before. And, right.

So we're sitting there in that room. It's this big room university hospital that we're all in. They're starting to ceremony, but they had not quite started. And she and I were sitting at a table waiting because, you know, we had seen some pictures there, but, you know, we just hadn't seen a person and we didn't think they had gotten there yet.

But notice they had already got there. We're sitting on the other side of the room and there were kids running around the wing and so forth. But Sarah's little girl somehow got away from Sarah's mom, Sarah and her mom, Donald and ended up at our table. Came straight to us and she was like, well, who, you know, talked around the top to her and then all of a sudden here appears Sarah and it's like, oh my gosh, I mean, he went out.

Excuse me. It's like when my folks Sarah was like, my boy was there. So it was a very emotional meeting and since then Donald Sarah and interjecting here a little bit. Also, David has had Sarah come to Jackson Prep to speak and we had a chance to meet her as well.

And one of the things that we learned during that conversation was that prior to receiving Walker's Kitty in Pancreas that she had actually coded three times before. Wow. And it's an incredible story of how these families have bonded and even gone probably a step further than most donor family recipients stories would go. David, why don't you talk a little bit about the new addition to their life and how Walker is honored through that family?

Well, I guess now about a year and a half ago, well, it would have been two years ago, Sarah and Donald were approached about adopting a third child. There was a mom, a lady who was pregnant in the area was not married and didn't feel like she could take care of the baby when she had it and was at the storm bridge, they would be interested in adopting that baby. And Sarah and Donald played about it and talked about it and they then made decisions without this child. And when the child was born, they took custody of the child about a week, about three or four days after it was born.

And finally, I think it took about six months to get full custody of all the paperwork done. And they had a baby dedication for this baby and go short on Saturday afternoon that couple weeks before Sarah called Sheila and wanted to know if she went on with the Godparents to the third adopted child. And of course, we said yes, we would. And Sarah then told Sheila says, well, the other part we want to ask is we want to name the baby after Walker.

Oh my goodness. And they named the boy Walker, we'll thank Stormbury and he goes by the name banks. Oh my goodness. And they go another step further.

Yeah, we did real we saw the picture, walk with a redhead. So Sheila and I drove down to go short. I think that was November, year before last night, I was no good girl. Eighteen.

I get my dates from this stuff. I'm sorry. But anyway, Sheila and I go down to go short. We got to then we already met Sarah's parents.

We got to meet Donald's parents, all their friends from church. And they had the baby dedication for a bank. And we got to we got to hold banks got a picture made with banks and since then we've seen them again and and had visited with them. But we are now the Godparents to a bank storm.

Oh my goodness. I sit here. I always pull up the pictures of the families that we're talking with on the podcast. And I was looking at Walker just just a strong presence to me.

But I can feel the love you had for this child is warm and fuzzy and I appreciate you working to keep his legacy going. Absolutely. I mean, that was that's a, you know, it's just it it amazes me to see how much Walker changed so many lives. And again, you know, Chuck Chuck knows Walker just through the stories and the community about people telling but Walker wouldn't kind of get that he'd want all the attention.

It's just what it was. It wasn't his personality. You know, Laurie, I think one of the interesting things about this job that we do is that and David just said it, I was going to follow up is that that we don't know these people sometimes prior to getting to know their families after they've been donors. But we come to know I feel like I knew Walker Wilbanks for his entire life.

I feel like I've known a lot of these people because of the stories and because of the connection we have with the donor family. My favorite part, my favorite part is we have the honor and the privilege of really becoming like family. And it's just the best part of the job is watching you guys light up because some of our parents will come in front of a classroom and they said, Oh, I just don't think I did a great job. And all of us are saying, Oh my gosh, you lit up talking about your and I can hear it David.

I can hear it and I just imagine you out, you know, spreading the word, which is amazing. And I love all of these things that the schools are doing, scholarships, garden of hope, all these wonderful things. And everyone's going to remember that that redheaded strong presence. I just love it.

Well, you know, I'm just sitting here in my office right now looking at the window and the back of my truck and the guys are working here. And Walker passed one of his friends also, baseball player Gene Wood who plays at TCU right now. I don't know where he got him maybe. He has stickers made that says 6522 on him and 65 was his football number 22, his baseball number.

I mean, there's still this time cards riding around Jackson that had that 6522 sticker on the back of it and I'll pull up this item and I will go over and even know who that adult is or that child is or Susan is got that sticker. But you know, if you chose to think there's still the memory Walker, you know, five and a half years later. I mean, it's just amazing. And we love that you let us share his story.

It's amazing. David, it's always a pleasure to talk to you. And I've had many conversations on the phone in person, some emotional, some we've shared a few laughs. It is an honor to share Walker's story.

It is an honor to work with you and Sheila time and time again to tell Walker's story because as you know, if we've experienced that we it's our job to keep his legacy going. It's our job to keep the legacy of what he did. And I think he put it best in one of the videos that we are able to shoot with you. And that is I like the way you put it that he was 17 years old.

He did more in his 17 years than I done in my 52 years. I love that. He did do more 17 years with it. And that's you know, his story, I have to really sometimes I think I've told you this before, you know, I don't want I want Walker's story to be one that is anything is educational.

His story makes dinnertime conversation, you know, come up about organization not all over you know, we're sandwich talk about it because I want to make sure that that keeping by keeping the story alive when letting people know, hey, organization doesn't matter. It does change lives, but it changes families and it changes communities. And I always want to be aware that I don't want to people think that I'm bragging about my son. I just want to know what his story was.

David, we've got opportunities for people to see more on our donate life Mississippi YouTube page about Walker. Actually, you're in a featured video that we have at the top of the page on the donate life Mississippi YouTube page. And then there's a story we did for Racing for donation last year, an event that unfortunately, because of the COVID-19 virus, we're going to have to cancel this year. But last year, there was a little video done where you and Sheila share your story.

And then we've also got local stories on a visit with Miss Mississippi that you could find at wlbt.com and wlox.com and plenty of stories on the clearing ledger too. I mean, it's it's it's an incredible story. It is it is amazing all the pieces of this that came together and how they've come together to keep Walker's legacy alive and how the decision was made, which has always been incredible to me that that child brought this to your family before anybody ever thought anything about it and that and that you fulfilled and carried out his wishes to help others. I mean, it is huge.

I mean, I got to say one thing, you know, interjecting this Walker's memory and legacy has as much to do with Walker's, it does his friends and Sheila and I friends. I mean, also the support that we've had from our community, the Jackson Prep community, the Jackson community, even the Jackson Academy School of that community, everybody, put down put down the rivalries and then and I kind of think when school and community they came together from this happen and even still to this time, still come together about it. And, you know, that just never one that makes me proud of my son, that lets me know that that at least some of the stuff that she went out for trying to teach him to take. So it does make me happy about that.

But it just I'm proud to say that we've got a base of a church family school, school family and other school families that have really helped us keep Walter's memory alive. Because, you know, something things we can talk about their scholarship are out there right now that it hadn't been for the prep family, our church family and our community. We never be there because of their donations to it. I love it.

I can feel your pride. I can feel your passion. I can feel your love for your son. Thank you for sharing his story.

Thanks for all you do and we'll continue to do. Chuck, thanks for bringing that to the table. Guys, we'll have more of the Get to Life podcast after this. In every episode of the Get to Life, we honor a hero.

Today's hero comes to us from our Mississippi partner, Mora. Our hero is Walker Wilbanks. In August of 2014, Walker Wilbanks was on the football field in the first game of the year for Jackson Prep. Walker started having severe headaches and mid game is dad took him to a local hospital for examination.

He suffered a severe sodium deficiency known as hyponatremia that caused water to build up on his brain. The Wilbanks family was soon faced with a question of donating their son's organs. Initially David Wilbanks, Walker's dad, did not want to donate Walker's organs and he expressed that to a family care specialist or Mississippi organ recovery agency. Walker's mom, Sheila, then relayed the story that a year earlier, Walker had told his mom he was going to sign up as an organ donor, asked if she was registered and if she wasn't, why not?

Because of that conversation, five lives were saved through six organs being transplanted. David and Sheila have become big advocates for donation. They have created scholarship funds at Walker's Alma Modern Jackson Preparatory School that goes to an up and coming junior to help with their tuition at the school and one with a Mississippi organ recovery agency that is awarded to a senior in any school across the state. Both scholarships are valued at 2265 and those numbers are significant because those are the numbers Walker War in baseball and football.

If you'd like to find out more about the scholarship offered by Mora, go to MSORA.org. And now we pause and say thank you to Walker Wilbanks for the gift of life. And our question and answer segment today, Chuck, this one's for you. It comes from a very special listener, me, just kidding.

I did hear Chuck that Mississippi was the first state to fully move to the national donor registry. So I'm just curious, has that changed the way you ask people to join? Can they still sign up when they get their license? How does that work?

No, it hasn't really changed anything at all. The national registry is just our full donor registry base now and people can still sign up when they do their license. In fact, it still remains the biggest way that people sign up to our donor registry. Over 98% of Mississippians have registered through the Department of Public Safety here in the state.

And we think and hope that that will continue because of their access to people. But it really hasn't changed anything at all in terms of questioning. We just have a different web address to direct people to. Thanks, Chuck.

I like that. That's incredible. We always promote that registry here, the national registry, which is register me.org, one stop shop. We want to hear from you.

Maybe you have a question info at the gift of life.org. You can also give us a call 5046483477. You may even play your audio on the podcast. And that'll do it for this episode of the gift of life.

Pretty powerful, Chuck. Very powerful. And you know, Lori, we had a chance to talk to David a little bit more off Mike. And one of the interesting things that he said was he really wants to eventually meet Walker's heart recipient.

And he has two questions that he wants answered. One is the person doing okay, is the recipient doing okay? And secondly, does he like sweet tea? Yes, because dad said Walker loved sweet tea.

That's it. That's all he wants to know. And that's David's concern for that person is immense. I mean, he knows how important that story is to his family as well.

And he got so emotional talking about a son talking about the sweet tea even. I just appreciate his honesty that he wants to use Walker's story to help make life happen. It was just a great visit with what felt like a friend. Yeah, always.

And he has become a dear friend. And as we said earlier, you know, you get to know these donor families, but you also get to know the donor, even though you did not maybe know them before they were ever a donor. Yeah, so families, we appreciate you guys sharing your loved ones with us. Now, the best place to find is podcast guys, the gift of life.org.

We are a team. Our hope is that you continue to help us spread the word. It's about education. It's about learning.

It's about making life happen. So you can listen there, the gift of life.org. You can also listen on Apple podcast, Google podcast, Spotify, iHeartRadio, just about anywhere. And if you're listening on Apple podcast, please leave us a five star rating.

It really helps others to find the podcast. And if I could, Laurie, I'd give you a six star rating. But that's not allowed. Chuck, is it because you're on the podcast today?

Well, I wouldn't give myself a six star rating. I'd give you a six star rating. We appreciate you guys partnering up with us. We always love to learn from one another.

Hear these stories. It's just amazing. I'm on social media guys like our page on Facebook, the gift of like podcast and follow us on both Twitter and Instagram at gifted life pod. Chuck, it was a pleasure.

It was a great pleasure. So I'm so thankful for the opportunity. Thank you. Thank you guys.

We're a team. We want you to go out and do something you wouldn't normally do to help us make life happen. Until next time. This is a production of LOPA, or the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency.

The gift to life is hosted by Laurie Steele, Joey Boudreau, and Sarah Blakemore. Our executive producer is Kirsten Heins. Producer is Shalom Caraway. Intern is Rebecca Rannam.

And we are recorded, engineered and mixed in our Covington, Louisiana studio by Troy Perez.