Hello and welcome to the gifted life podcast where we have conversations about organ, tissue and idol nation. I'm Lori Steele and this is a special episode of the gifted life with a special guest host. Welcome to Woody Overton of the Real Life Real Crime Podcast. Wow.
Hey Lori, I really appreciate you having me here today and such an honor and a privilege. I am so glad that you're here and I'm happy for people to hear our story about how the gifted life and real life real crime cross paths, right? Right, exactly. The veteran educator who brought us together through the Listen Periscals and Technology Center in our first live show ever and I was happy to get on board with Lola.
One person making the difference. We'll talk to that veteran educator. We'll hear her why all that more because our goal is making life happen and we're doing it together. All that more right here on the gifted life.
Here on the gifted life podcast. So excited. I am like almost shaking here. Woody Overton is in the gifted life podcast studio and award winning podcaster.
It's called the Real Life Real Crime Podcast. I hope that you'll download it. I'm happy to have you here. Thank you sweetie.
It's great to be here. Yes. Over 2 million downloads. Over 2.2 today.
Well, so I know that you're storytelling just from having watched you in action live in person. We'll talk about that. But what is it about the podcast? What is it?
I don't know. I think the true crime genre and the fans, they just can't get enough. And I think where regular true crime podcasts tell a story that they've researched, et cetera. The listeners get to look from the outside of the crime scene tape.
What I do on Real Life Real Crime is I tell my own stories. The cases that I actually work, so I actually get to bring the listeners inside the crime scene tape and give them the details of exactly what I saw and what I heard and what I felt. And I think you are it too. You're just a real genuine, nice, good guy.
I appreciate that. Wants to get the bad guys, right? Absolutely. And I love that you want to honor the victims as well.
If you take care of them, you take care of the families, like I've watched you in action. And I think you as a person, I think people are drawn to that. Well, I appreciate that. Thank you.
So tell us about the background and how this all came to be. How did you get to where we are? Well, it was a career, law enforcement veteran, if you will, working my way up through the ranks, everything from corrections to uniform patrol to special response teams, detectives, an investigator, an even polygraph in when I retired from law enforcement and doing my private business, et cetera. One day my wife said, you need to start a podcast.
I was like, I don't even know what a podcast is. So everybody loves your voice and loves your stories. And so just do it. What is calming?
I appreciate that. So we checked out some of the top true crime podcasts in the world and we were listening to them like, this is really boring to me. It was right because people just telling stories, they researched off the internet. I mean, how many times can you talk about Ted Bundy, right?
And I said, I'll tell them a story and I did and it just kind of took off from there. Wow. So you listen to your wife. That's what I got from her.
Right back. Always, always. Well, I love that. You guys have an intense following.
I know your first live doing a podcast was at the Livingston Parish Literacy and Technology Center. We'll talk about that. But I was there, fan-burling too. But these people traveled for miles around.
Right. We had it from Tennessee, Florida, Texas, just all over. It was amazing, right? And everybody felt a connection.
Like that's why they were there. That's cool. Sold out crowds. Yeah.
Three nights and a night. Thanks to the great people at the LPTC. Yeah. All right.
So tell us about those great people. One of the things that I started and I had never done a live show, but I got invited by Ms. Kelly Jennings to talk to her criminal justice students. And I always like to do that.
You know, help young kids. I wish I had a teacher like Kelly Jennings when I was coming out. I'd been a long horse professional long time before. But so I wouldn't talk to her class and you know, we'd been growing phenomenally in the podcast ad and she was like, maybe you want to do a live.
Maybe. Okay. So we did it the first night. And then we sold out all the tickets and less than 20 less than an hour.
I think on the first night and I called her back and said, what about another night? And then we sold out that one in a day. And then what about another night? And then we sold that one out.
And it was really phenomenal. They're great people. Yeah. I'm smiling because Kelly is also in the get to live podcast studio.
Hey, ma'am. Hey, how are you doing? So Woody, we're talking about this lady, just a good human. Great teacher, great for the kids.
More than just book learning, right? You want these kids to be well-rounded individuals when they leave you, right? Absolutely. And I think one of the worst things you can do is bring a kid into a classroom and have them be bored.
Yeah. You know, some of these kids, you know, they expect today with everything going on and all the technology and everything they can do to find information. They want to see it and taste it and touch it and really live in the moment and they want reality. And so I try really hard to bring them like Woody, you know, that's reality.
And it's right from our backyard in Livingston Parish. And so that's been the goal. Give them a good education, but let them have fun. The students were fantastic.
They were engaged. That's what I'm saying. That's the difference when I came up and I was just trying to cut school, right? And they wanted to be there.
Not recommended. They wanted to be there and you could tell it and they were passionate about it. They were really awesome. Yeah.
Well, I'm not bored sitting here listening to you today. It's all about being in the specialty. So you'll see how Woody got involved with Kelly. And then tell us about LPLT, the Livingston Parish Literacy and Technology Center, what is it?
Sure. So we are a really neat school in Livingston Parish. We're in Walker, Louisiana, and we are a career and technical education facility. So students from all over the parish can come and have an opportunity to learn career and tech ed right there for free in their own backyard.
And so the course that I teach is criminal justice and kids have to get a certification, right? And so we integrated 911 dispatch certification for these students. And that is just out the box. That is so much fun.
It's intense, it's exciting. It's always something new to teach. So what I do is first semester, they actually are learning about Intro to Criminal Justice. So why do crimes happen?
How do crimes happen? How do people become victims? You know, victimology and everything, y'all from just a traffic stop through murder. And we go from the time that a crime occurs through the death penalty and we try to cover everything in between and give them a really good, well-rounded, practical application of things like handcuffing.
We actually go and we shoot and do what's called a post course. So the students are learning about practical knowledge that will help them not just theory and ideology. So I taught all of that first semester. Oh my gosh.
I was not going to wait. I was not going to wait. I was in school either. And crime is not going away.
So I always have a fresh content that I can integrate into my class. So one day I was actually going to a Boys to Men concert with my sister and I said, hey, let's try this podcast. I heard Real Life Real Crime. She's like, cool, let's do it.
So we popped it on and it was the Courtney Coco case. And the reason it really drew me in was because my sister's name is Courtney. We call her Coco and my mother's name is Stephanie and Courtney Coco's mother's name is Stephanie. And so we were just like, what?
The more you spoke, we felt like our hearts are raised and oh my God. We felt tied. We really literally got an emotional attachment to your podcast just from the names that really sparked my interest in, hey man, this man, you know, while I know what I know from going to college and learning about crime and also do reserve with the Livingston-Pairse office. And I want to, if I can, say thank you to Sheriff Ard for all of the great things he does for my program, sending officers all the time to come and teach practical skills because I'm always learning to.
But when I heard Woody speaking, I said, the kids have got to have a part of this. This is a man who knows what he's talking about. He's done it. This is not someone who's learned about it and passed down information.
This man has been there. He's like, you know, the smells and the scene, the victims. And he's a good man. So that's how we kind of got tied in was that I said, I want him to come and I asked him and the rest of the history, he came into his lives and I'm honored and I'm really in touch that you did you know that that was going to work so well?
No, I had to prove some of the best plans are the ones you don't expect. You know, when that first night when that line was out the door, I was calling my boss Kirsten here at Lobo and I was like, you will not believe this, right? Because we have to get to like podcast, we're always looking to grow. And it's like, wow.
So, so on the other hand, so you're working with Woody doing criminal justice and then you get involved with donation. Yes. Right. And then we're going to start talking about donation about donation.
Is it just wanting to educate your kids and? Yeah. So actually it was really it almost seemed organic. It came together that, hey, if we're going to learn about crime and then we're going to learn about crime scenes, then I kind of started looking into, you know, like autopsies and things like that.
And then I came across Lobo actually, I first learned about it from my friend Lori right here. And I said, man, we really need to let these kids understand what organ donation is, how important it can be. I mean, it's a life saving adventure that people who have gone on, right and have moved on and a personal one can still leave a legacy and can still bring life to people that are so desperately needing it. And it's free.
You know, it's a gift that you can't buy. So I brought in Blake. What's Blake's last name? Blake Smith.
Blake Smith. Blake Smith. Yeah. Rock.
Okay. I'm one of the biggest fans and he's actually related to our automotive instructors. That was a fun fact we found out too. But Blake came in, he brought in tissues, he brought in samples so the kids could see it.
And he really showed the kids the importance of time being the essence that we can procure more than you expect. I mean, I learned a lot. And so I wanted the kids to see, look, crime happens, but there's a big world out there. So we may have a victim, but we also have a hero that could possibly pass on life.
And so that's kind of how it all came together, you know, on my end, yeah. And at Lobo, we were so excited. We were like, oh, we have a veteran educator with all these ties, right? And so what are you going to come back to you because we have this podcast, you're going live, you head into this school.
And then did she just say, hey, can we talk about donations? You were having that conversation even go? Actually, when she brought it up, I had a worked-a-coach case homicide on a young lady who was run off the road about 18 Wheeler and she lived for several days and she was an organ donor. And her mom and I became really close.
And a lot of our organs got used. And even one of them was a doctor from California that's still living today because I was aware of it, but I didn't know how to help. And so something I feel very passionately about. Oh my goodness.
And so we're sitting there with these live podcasts. I had just started soaking up all this information. I know you mentioned the Coco podcast. Is that your first one that you all started with?
No, no, no. I had been since February 9th of 2019. All right. So people want to find it.
Yeah, it's just real life, real crime. Courtney Coco. The Courtney Coco case. That's a series on a cold case out of Alexandria.
That was a popular one that folks continue to follow us on a lot of social media traffic about that. And what do you solve it, by the way? Yeah, that's pretty nice. Yeah, people say you have to go and check it out in the follow up episodes as well.
So we're at this live. I'm in the audience and I'm just in awe of these people that traveled from Florida. It was crazy, right? And then we got this popular podcast during this veteran educator and they said, and by the way, please think about donation.
Like, why would you do that? Why would you allow us to ride on your tails? I believe in giving back. And then again, the young lady whose case that I worked and the family came so close with the blue man about all the lives the young lady was able to save the donation.
And so I'm all about it. I love it. And given back and in wanting to do more and then heading for COVID, we've done a lot more, but we're still going to do more. So COVID-19 through everything into a tailspin, right?
But even at the live podcast, you as a teacher, I remember the sticky notes that she put up with the link to sign up so that we could track, right? So we're going to talk about, we know Woody's why we just heard that a case that he worked that is in his brain and the legacy. And we're going to hear about Kelly's why coming up in just a bit here. I appreciate you guys.
I appreciate the partnership. Just good humans working together to make life happen. That's what it's all about. So more to come here on the gift in life.
Hey guys here on the gift in life podcast, special edition. Lori Steele here with Woody Overton. What's your podcast, Woody? Real Life Real Crime.
I just like to hear your voice. You can say it all day. I'll listen to you. We're going to add another voice.
We have Kelly Jennings with the Livingston Parish Literacy and Technology Center. And we're adding another voice. Her name is Gabby Medair. Close tie to Ms.
Kelly kind of fuels her passion. It's kind of her why. And I'll let you do the honors here. Sure.
I was a student of mine a few years ago. And I always thought that she was such a doll. And I enjoyed teaching her. And whenever I got on my phone one day, I saw a newscast came across that said that there had been a bad wreck on the interstate and that some people had been injured.
And so doing what I do, I got a line and started searching to see if I could figure it out. And sure enough, it was my former student, Gabby. And I wanted to check on her. And Gabby told me that her precious baby Reese, who is the topic, our hero today.
That, sorry. Reese was not in a good way at that moment. And I said, you know what? And she said, I would like for you to come.
And so I went up to the hospital. And you had graduated, right, Gabby? At that point, you had graduated. And I went up there because once you're my kid, you're my kid.
I don't care if you graduated. And I went up there just to give her some support. And that's kind of how I was really inspired to move forward with this situation. And Sweet Reese did pass away.
And I have her little picture on my file cabinet at school. It's been there since the day I received it. And that little sweetheart's memory will always stay alive as far as I am concerned. And Gabby, we appreciate you joining us today and sharing Reese's story.
We've been talking about Kelly Jennings, the veteran educator and her why for this passion for donation and spreading it to her children and to what he overton. You can feel it, right? Yes, he can. Very emotional.
So take us back to 2017, if you could. Gabby, it started just like a any normal day. It was actually my off day. I was working at a great clinic at the time and I had that one day off.
And that night we always go feeding the horse. I was living in the average at the time in the horse stayed in dinner. So that evening we went to go feed my horse and my child Reese, you know, if she wasn't in bed or at least going to bed by seven o'clock, she was screaming on the way home. So I made it a point to leave earlier to make sure that that wasn't happening because I'm not about to ride in the vehicle with a screaming child.
And as I was walking out the house, I noticed it was kind of late and I was like, oh well, you know, you gotta do what you gotta do. So I remember the last thing I remember was getting on the interstate. And then from there, I remember waking up and not being able to breathe, move, hear, any of it. And it was like one of those rags where you woke up and you were like, what in the hell just happened?
And as soon as I figured out that it had been a wreck and I still couldn't move or anything, I was like, all right, at least I can hear and I can't hear my child. And then that's when I was, you know, something's wrong. And when I could finally move, I'd move to, I turned to my right. And that's when I noticed that that Reese, Reese's car seat was in my dashboard and she was in her car seat still.
And it just looked like she was sleeping and there was no blood or nothing, you know. And as soon as I saw her, that's when I started freaking out and I started banging on my door, my baby, my baby, I couldn't see anybody couldn't hear nothing still. And I couldn't open my door. Somebody got her out from the other side.
I got out with them and some, thankfully some nurses were able to stop and they were like, you know, she is breathing. She is doing something. I said, all right, you know, I'm just need to calm down, make sure I'm not freaking out. So the ambulance finally showed up and they got her in the ambulance, they got me in the ambulance, put her me and her both in the neck brace.
And when we got in the ambulance, we were going to go to option here, but the, the nurse or whoever was in the ambulance that was assessing her was like, you know, she's about to crash. And then that's when they also said she's Agonal breathing. And I don't know if y'all know what that means or not, but I worked out a bit in her clinic. And when you put down an animal, they always explain to the, to the owner, look, after you put this animal down, they're going to do something called Agonal breathing.
And that's when that's the body's last attempt to save the body before it dies. So I knew when they told when they had said she's Agonal breathing, I knew right in and there my child was going, but there was a little bit of hope being maybe if they could save her and just some miracle would happen. But from there, they said, we need to go to option or she's, she's got a crash. And I was like, all right, we need to go to the closest hospital series.
And when we got there, they had gotten all my support, everything was going great. And then after that, they said that they didn't have a pediatric trauma unit, that we need to go to our lady like off S. And so we got transported from there to our lady, the lake from there, they did an MRI and a CAT scan and came back out and had told me that there was a tremendous amount of swelling and blood drops on her skull. And now we have two options.
We could either do nothing, keep her on medicine and she'll eventually die or we can do surgery, relieve some of the pressure and see what happens from there. So I was like, I mean, obviously I want to do is do surgery. So within that amount of time, I went and got checked out. I was fine.
Her surgery lasted for maybe three and a half hours, which was longer than usual. It was what I was told from a friend of mine who was a nurse. But after all that, they came out and they said, look, when you talk to the mom and dad, we both went in there. And the first thing that came out of his mouth, I was still in a wheelchair at this moment, the first thing that came out of his mouth was she wasn't going to survive this.
And that when they did the surgery, they did everything was going great. They relieve some of the pressure, but when he cut the skull and he turned around and he turned back to her, within that short amount of time, her brain had swelled so much out of the hole that he couldn't close it back. My five month old stayed on a life support bed for three days with her brain, you can ask Kelly, with her brain continuously swelling and bleeding the whole time. It never stopped.
It never stopped bleeding. I mean, I had to look at my child with a wrap around her head and her head was huge. So from there, we got brought up to the trauma unit of the hospital where she was laying. When a person is a brain death victim, they go through these stages.
And that's when you do two response tests and then you do a blood test. Well, the response test or things like putting the, you know, keeps it under the eye, putting it under the press or down the door, down the throat, see if you gag or something like that. See if you respond anything. And she failed both of them.
Well, after that was the, was the blood test. And this was all within a three day period. And that last test where they, you know, did, did, did a test to see if there was any blood going to the brain at all. And there was none.
So that's when on Friday, I think it was October 13th, Reese was pronounced dead at one, at one 26. And then after that was when Lopa got involved because I was told that even though she was, she was dying, she also had four organs that were, that were good. And I was like, okay, you know, and throughout this time I was thinking about that, I was like, you know, what are the possibilities that she is actually going? And I have to think about something like that.
You know, I was 21 years old. You know, that's not something a 21 year old thinks about. I want to tell you, Gabby, that when I showed up, you became one of my heroes because you were so brave and you were so much tougher than I would have ever been. And I would, you know, I showed up trying to give you comfort, you know, but I want you to know that you're a prime example of what a mama should be.
And you did that baby justice, you know? Well, that definitely means a lot because I went through so much that there's not just those three days, but a long time after that. And when they told me that, you know, she is dead and now that you know that all these organs are good, you have some options. And that's, and that was she can take her last breath and that'll be it.
Or you can donate these organs, you can hold her after her surgery. And then that's it. And I was like, you know, I thought about it. And I was like, you know, I lost my baby and I don't, as a mother, nobody, nobody wants to go through something like that.
Losing a child because a piece of you is literally going and you can't do nothing about it. You can't, you can't scream. You can't cry. I mean, you can, but it only takes so much, you know?
So after I had, you know, decided I don't want another mother to go through what I went through. That's when they said that her heart, liver, kidneys and intestines were all good. I was like, you know, that's, that's honestly the outcome that I was hoping after I found out that she was going. I was like, you know, I just need something, just some type of hope, just something, you know, and that's, that's, that's, that's, that's the something that I got.
After her surgery to, you know, get all of her organs, I was given the option of holding her and I had three different lopo people tell me she's not going to look the same, her blood's not going to be running through ravines. You know, if it were me, I wouldn't want to do it because I don't want to hold my child. I don't want to see them like that. And I thought about it.
You know, that's my baby. I brought her into this world. And if I don't want to hold her after her surgery, I don't really, I mean, that's, that's my child. So, so, and honestly when I was able to hold her, she just looked like a little porcelain doll.
Look, so like not glass, like, but you know, perfect. I know what you're talking about. Right. So perfect.
And it wasn't until after we had actually buried her that I got a call from Lopa saying that her heart went to a, to a little infant, her liver went to a little infant, her intestines went to a 10 year old girl and her kidneys went to a 60 year old woman. I later on found out that the little boy, he's a, he's actually doing great. I found that out maybe a year ago that he's just, he's right, right, right now after all the surgeries that he's gone through, he was only diagnosed with trauma from the surgery. And that was getting better.
The little boy who got her liver is a Vietnamese and lives in California. So I don't really know too much about them. And the other two, I haven't heard that from him yet. So, but that's, that's about it.
Hey, Gabby, it's Woody. I just want to tell you something, you know, I'm a father of four and throughout my career, I've been involved in, in around death so much. And I just, as much as Reese's are here, you're my hero too. Okay.
21 years old. And to go through that, and I have goosebumps and I think you're an amazing mother and you're an amazing person. And the lives that, that Reese's been able to go on and touch us, it's just an amazing story. Well, thank you.
I appreciate that. And we have to remember Reese was only five months old and look at the impact, the legacy that this little baby in her five months of living was able to do. I have to ask you because you are only 21. So like, I'm chills over here and just like Kelly, you know, hope to never be in that position, but you have to make some tough decisions that day.
Did you know about donation before? What do you think about donation now? Like talk to us about that. You know, growing up here and my parents talk about, you know, did you become an organ donor on your license and all that?
And I'm like, what, what is organ donation? And they, you know, as a kid, you always get explained, you know, if something were to happen in a wreck and they had to choose, if you know, if you wanted to donate your organs, there's somebody who needed them and stuff like that. So I didn't know what organ donation was. I just never gave any thought to it as a kid because you think, oh, it's never going to happen to me, you know?
Right. I think organ donation is great now because I saved three moms from going through what I could possibly, or could possibly go through what I went through. And somebody else is, or a grandmother who got her kidneys, you know, I saved them from going through what I went through too. So I don't know if you remember in the hospital, we had a little conversation at the foot of Reese's bed.
And it was right before her second test that she was having. Do you remember what conversation I'm talking about? Are we? Oh, Lord, no.
I know you don't. So we were talking and I said, man, this isn't looking so good. Is it? And you're like, no, it's not looking good at all.
I just said to you that just remember that love is an action. And you're like, yes, ma'am, I know. And I said, so some people, some people fulfill their purpose in five months and some people fulfill their purpose in 60 years. Do you remember that?
I know you were overwhelmed. It's bringing back some memories. Yeah. And you said, well, I guess we'll figure that out soon enough.
And sweet baby girl, I think, you know, you hear people being angels on earth. You know that Reese is an absolute hero. Absolutely. We're looking at her little face now, Gabby.
It's hard to believe you were 21. She was five months old at the live podcasts in Kelly's class. She talks about Reese and she holds up the picture and she talks about your story and the strong mama and this five month old who saved these babies through donation. So her legacy continues.
We're still using that story to help educate and help save more lives. What do you think about that piece of the story? I think that's great. I honestly, before you had told me a couple of nights ago that she actually had the picture of Reese, I didn't know that.
Or maybe I did not just forgot. But I think it's great because I remember being a teenager and thinking, you know, I can text and drive. I can do this. Nothing's going to happen.
Lo lo lo lo and behold, teenagers do it every day. And, you know, it could happen to anybody. I know I didn't mention that it was because of texting and driving, but I think what she's doing is phenomenal. Hey, Gabby.
I want to tell you Kelly's love for you and baby Reese really inspired me to get involved with LOPA and we promoted every chance we can. And I think we've had some success and we're going to continue to do it. So the sweet baby is still being a hero and your story is bringing your saving more lives every day. The story goes on.
You know, it's not over. All right. Well, Gabby, we appreciate you sharing your story. I know that when we talked, you said, oh, everything's hazy, but from your account of things that look like you remember details like I was in the room with you.
I was in the car with you. I know that that's still fresh on your heart and in your mind. And for you to take the time, you know, we certainly appreciate that. And we do want to talk about another blessing that's coming into your life shortly right aren't you expecting?
I am expecting. I actually have a little girl that she is one and a half and you can ask Kelly because I post pictures and videos over all the time. She's a mess. Happy you ever saw.
She is a good fall for sure. And I am expecting my first little boy at the end of this month. Congratulations. Well, thank you.
You're amazing. You're amazing. Yes. Thank you for sharing Reese with us.
She'll be on our LOPA heroes page and she's our hero for this episode of the gift of life. But Gabby, thank you for all you do. Thank you for being raw, honest for sharing your feelings, your journey with us and for helping us learn. So it's all about.
No problem. I know that me and Kelly talked about something already said something yesterday about I actually have a little resell shop and then that's named after Reese. Yeah. Reese is mercantile, right?
Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that was the tie. She put a new billboard up. I was so proud when I saw that little baby's name up there.
Gabby, where is it? Where's the shop? It's on floor of Boulevard, right across from Veterans. I don't know if y'all know where the B&B mini mart used to be.
It's literally right next to it. It used to be a pawn shop. Oh. Well, I got to share with you my wife would be a visitor.
Gabby, Texas, the info as you get it. I did not know that tie, but happy to share with our friends, obviously on front living in parish as well. So we just appreciate you taking the time today from making the time. It's just amazing.
I love you, Gabby. Love you too. And I enjoy talking. I like sharing the story and stuff.
So thank you all for wanting to do this. Thank you again. And thank you for inspiring me and you're really going to give me the motivation to really push low, but even harder. Thank you.
Well, thank you. And every episode of the gifted life, we honor a hero. Today's hero, Reese, Catherine Graham. Y'all, we learned about Reese's story today from her mama Gabby.
Reese Catherine Graham born on May 7, 2017 and passed on October 13, 2017. Reese was a very happy and smiley baby. There wasn't a moment where she wasn't smiling and playing with her hands. She's dearly missed by so many.
The world was a brighter place when she was here. Through this horrible tragedy of losing my precious baby, she was able to save four lives, two of them being babies. And that's a statement from Reese's mama Gabby. And you can see Reese's Sweet Face.
Learn more on our LOPA heroes page at lopa.org. And now we pause to say thank you to Reese for the gift of life. Powerful story. Wow.
So that's your why. That's a pretty good why, huh? It's amazing. It's my why now.
Yeah. Well, and it got our attention. And then you hear you talking about this baby and her baby just incredible. So we do have to let you know that Kelly had started this campaign at school.
We got Woody on board. And so together pre COVID-19, right? That kind of threw us off the trails for a little bit, but almost 450 new names added to the Louisiana donor registry because we were inspired by baby Reese, by Gabby, by those donors and recipients. Just incredible stories.
So how did you do it? Oh, yeah. So hopefully we have some other educators listening so that they could get a plan possibly to get other people involved or kids in their classes involved. If I was going to tell the people how I did it, first of all, you have to have the drive and the want.
So this isn't for somebody that's being volunteered. You know, this is for someone who's wanting to make a difference. Find that teacher. Find that person at your organization and then have a plan.
You get a small game plan together. These are one of those things that evolve and, you know, situations are fluid. So you have to kind of figure out what works best for you in your situation. But I went to my admin.
My admin was like, sure, go for it. I mean, why not with all with the world today? Let's do some good things, you know? So I went to the students.
I presented it to them and they were like, heck yeah, let's do this. We all need to feel good. And this is cost us nothing. So I hate to say I, but that's, you know, I'm not a person.
So I'll just say we put together. We made packets for all the students that became what we called our social media ambassadors. Those kids were volunteered from schools all over Livingston Parish. So shout out to those schools.
You know, who you are. Y'all did a great job all the way from Denham to Walker to Albany, all the way out to French settlement. We had kids volunteer. They took the time to get information about organ donation, some fun facts, some interesting facts.
They went out into their community. They shared those facts online. It really got people's attention. They made videos and they all did it in honor of Reese and her legacy.
So, you know, that was just how we did it. And then I put together some challenges that I thought were kind of fun because I love a competition. Ooh, I want to say that, girl. We had fun with somebody we didn't know that about her.
I want to win, y'all. So we put together some challenges. It was a lot of fun. And the kids really got competitive.
And in the end, we made them put together a portfolio of before COVID hit, right? Kind of cut it off. But they told, did some interviews of recipients and of donor families. They went to events.
So like basketball games and any sports events that they could go set up a table. We provided the items for them to go do that. Most of the students came to the live real life. Real life.
Because they wanted to shout out, which you gave them would eat. Definitely. Yeah, talk about the students. Yeah, those kids came.
This was really neat. So we learned I actually did not, I'm not a hugely tech savvy person, but I do like technology. So the wonderful people that Lopa made us a QR code and it was really cute. Because that matters right.
And the kids went around and we got people while they were waiting in line because there was a line to me, who do you owe? They all wanted to see Mr. Overton. I was in the line.
Okay. And while people were waiting, we had told the story of Reese before he had started speaking. And so while they were waiting in line, popped up that QR code and we just went down the line and people scanned their phones. So simple.
If anything, learn how to work with QR code and you can change the world. And you can change the world. One scan at a time. Yeah.
That was amazing. I think at some point we got some fans from out of state that were able to register under the C.C. Absolutely. And so our website, because we are trying to track it, right?
So competition, even though COVID cut it short, at the time that we stopped coming to school, we had 443 new donors. Excuse me. There's a 443. Yeah.
Super proud of that. But then we had people because of Woody's live from out of state going, wait, wait, how do we do this? So if you go to our link and I'll say it slowly for you, it's lopa.org slash L T C. And for our crime junkies, that's Lima, Tango, Charlie.
That's right. Yeah. And so if you go to our site, you can absolutely drop down buttons. And if you're from out of state, you just click it and it'll direct you right where you need to be, takes a little less than two minutes.
And look under the criminal justice session. Yeah. And there's no roadmap for this. So you worked with community educators in the Baton Rouge area, one of them being me.
And I want to give you a shout out. And I know that I didn't plan to say that, but Lori Steele, y'all, if you are in our area and you need someone who is just a beaming light of joy to walk onto your campus and just make you feel so good about life, you need to get Lori to help you out. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah. But together, it's like we can feel the energy, right? Let's do something good for somebody. I love it.
So we can see why that was working, but there was no road map. So you have to be flexible and you have to go with it. And then what he says, I'll help you. And we're like, oh, we can plan for out of state and so many out of state.
So we increased registries out of state, which was incredible as well. But one of the things that we do is education and what he says we have to hear our crime guy, Gabby mentioned a little bit. You don't want to focus on that. But there was a crime.
Right. That's correct. The accident or the crash is not technically an accident. It's a criminal act.
It's a vehicular crash. And the driver of the vehicle was charged with negligent homicide. Now a negligent homicide in the state of Louisiana is defined as a person who shows such little care or lack of care for other human beings that they call as a death. And this person was texting and driving and speeding at least 10 miles an hour over the speed limit and she didn't hit her brakes until 0.5 seconds before the crash.
So it is, she was arrested. They made warrants for her, et cetera. And y'all, it's serious. And I guess we're all guilty of it taking a phone call, et cetera.
But it wakes me up again, right? But you have consequences. And I teach my children everything. You do in life.
You have consequences and go to bed and every action you take. And this young lady killed baby race and could have been avoided. So you're getting set out to do it. Right now, sure.
Absolutely happened. And she was, I wouldn't say she was zigging zagging in and out of traffic at a high rate of speed and was texting and hit Gabby from high end of college with this death. And therefore you have the charge of negligent homicide plus some traffic vehicle charges, reckless careless operation, et cetera. I mean, could have been avoided absolutely.
And y'all just don't do it. And on the speeding part, every 10 miles an hour over the speed limit, they, I think the statistic is you increase your chance of fatality by like 20% that you're going every 10 miles an hour over the speed limit that you're going crash that you get into. So figure it out. I'll tell you, I'll tell my students to that just because it says the word accident.
OK, there are some quote unquote accidents that I'm sorry, will not fix. No, absolutely. And I'm sorry, will never fix this. And I'm not even the child's mother.
And I'm. Well, you know, the, and that's why we have the laws. And it's unfortunate. I mean, most cases a negligent homicide or, or vehicular homicides, DWIs in cases like this, or accidental shootings, sometimes things like that.
But it's just totally avoidable. And just show better sense, usually common sense. And those laws are there for a reason. You know, we're not trying to be a totalitarian state.
They're there for safety. Right. And every law that's on the book is there because somebody did something bad. Yeah, that's true.
And LOPA, we are involved in a set impact program. So they have the mock crash. They have the mock trial. And they try to show those consequences in a real time event.
And they use real people. But let me tell you, when they show the video of the person playing the victim, I tear up. Like the parents in the room tear up. So it's an educational piece.
We appreciate your expertise here. I think that LOPA doing the educational is amazing because people truly don't understand until they're involved. It's like having somebody saying they have a migraine. Everybody knows what a migraine is, but you don't really get it unless you've ever had one, right?
But we don't want people to go through this to have an experience so they can learn what it's about. Just don't do it. Yeah. So y'all keep educating.
And I appreciate LOPA doing that. Absolutely. We use our amazing volunteers, which is how we got here today. So we appreciate our little group here, folks working to make life happen.
Yeah. And I just want to say one more thing. Thank you for having me today. But we're going to put our money where our mouth is and really feel strongly about this.
And moving forward, we're going to do everything that we can to use our platform for LOPA. Wow. Make heroes, right? Yeah.
The gift that keeps on giving, making life happen. We appreciate that. And that'll do it for episode 141 of the gift of life. Guys, Woody, Kelly, thank you so much for being here.
You didn't have to help. Didn't have to get involved. Didn't have to be bothered. Good humans.
And I love that. You decided to do something extra to help us make life happen. That makes my heart smile. And we know that we are making a difference just from being in groups of people with you guys.
We can see it. So thank you. And also thank you to Gabby for being just real with us today, right? I'm really proud over.
So, hey, look, we may be down right now in terms of education and that we're not in the classroom, but that doesn't mean that my mission is going to stop. I got a new group coming. And we're going to keep pushing this, you know, forward. We got 443.
Get out there. See if you can get people to sign up. It's really simple. And we want to hit that 1000 mark.
We'd appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you for having me today and I feel passionate about it before but then getting the listen to Gabby and tell her stories just amazing.
And for real life real crime, the podcast, we don't have an official calls or motivation or what term you could make it. Lopez is going to be mine. And that'll be their main thing if we do any fundraising, whatever we can do. Mainly, I want to get people to sign up because Reese saved four lives, right?
And one person, we got 443 or however many of each of them get to save lives and that's a gift that keeps on giving and it's just powerful. It's awesome. We need some inspiration right here on this podcast today. Yeah, it's amazing.
It's amazing. We ask that you share it, check out real life real crime. If you're in Livingston Parish, check out the Livingston Parish Literacy and Technology Center, your kids actually leave and can work as do your spatures when they leave. Yes.
So upon successful completion, they are actually internationally certified dispatchers and we are focusing in police for the course, but they are certified dispatchers and they do. The sheriff has hired a lot of my students. I have them on the road. Some of them are now even detectives and we have them in the dispatch center so I'm very proud of that.
The best of the best in Louisiana. I love it from podcast, education and you guys chose LOPA. I mean, how special is that? Thank you so much.
Our ask for those of you listening, please share this. The best place to find us, the Gifted Life podcast is at our website, thegiftedlife.org. You can listen there or on any podcast app. That's how I listen.
On Facebook or the Gifted Life podcast, Twitter and Instagram at GiftedLifePod. Check us out. Help us with our mission. Go out and do something you would normally do to help us make life happen.
We're all one team. All right. This is a production of LOPA, or the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency. The Gifted Life is hosted by Lori Steele, Joey Boudreau and Sarah Blakemore, our executive producer is Kirsten Heis, producer is Shalom Caraway.
Intern is Rebecca Rannam and we are recorded, engineered and mixed in our Covington, Louisiana studio by Troy Perez.