SODA: Student Organ Donation Advocates

Hello and welcome to the Gifted Life Podcast where we have conversations about organ tissue and eye donation. We certainly appreciate you guys for listening. I'm Lori Steele. I'm Joey Boudreau.

I'm Sarah Blakemore. Today on the podcast. Students who advocate for donation. I like it.

And food and anxiety. Got my attention. Alright, that and more coming up right here, the GiftedLife.org. Hang on to your house.

Here on the Gifted Life Podcast, we are so grateful to welcome Ms. Sarah Miller. Hey, Ms. Sarah.

Hi, how are you? I love how this worked out guys. Because Sarah, just a couple of episodes ago, episode 107, who do we talk to Joe? Sarah's mom.

Your mama. She loves her daughter. She's so proud. I know.

And she's doing incredible work in her own life. So check out episode 107. And then now we're kind of moving forward to Ms. Sarah and her mission to help us save more lives.

So thank you so much. Tell us a little bit about who Sarah is now. Thank you for having me. So as you learned a bit in a previous episode, my family is part of a donor family.

And my sister was an organ donor around 10 years ago after a horrible tragedy. And so I've become really passionate about saving lives through organ donation because of this gift my sister was able to give. My specific passion is for educating and advocating for organ donation to college and high school students. And so that's why when I was in college, I founded sort of student organ donation advocates.

I love it. It's like, I just founded this. When I was in the national organization, your family is incredible. All right.

So this all started because this is kind of your sister's legacy. Tell us your sister's name. My sister was Laura. And she was 14 years old when she passed away.

But we, like you just mentioned, feel like this is an amazing way for her to live on through her organ donation. Now you were 12 at the time. I was. Yeah.

And what do you remember thinking about like a donation at 12? Yeah. So a lot of the, you know, a lot of the details can still be a bit hazy for me. But you know, Laura was such a kind, a kind spirit and such a mentor to me and to my sister Rachel.

And you know, we wish we could have seen her grow up and see, you know, where she would be now. I always picture her living in New York City, not too far away from me. But we've actually had the chance to meet the recipient of Laura's liver. And we, you know, feel so grateful to have that relationship as well.

So I can't imagine how challenging it is. You know, of course, as a 12 year old to lose your sister like that. And not only, you know, of course, you're grieving your mom's grieving and the challenges that come with that. And then you see beyond all that.

So just a few short years later, you develop soda. So tell us a little bit about that. Sure. Absolutely.

So from the very beginning, I was able to take my grief and focus on organ donation as positive message that came from my sister passing away. And so, you know, I knew that organization was a way for me to channel my my grief. And when I came to college, I wanted to have a way to share my passion and my story that relates to organ donation with a larger audience. And so when I came to college, I started talking to people on campus to figure out how I could share my story and how I could advocate for donation.

And everyone said, you know, Sarah, you should wait till you're a sophomore or junior, even a senior to get started. And only then you can start a campus organization to really help mobilize your peers about this cause. But I didn't take that as an answer. I wanted to start something right away and I wanted to get going with my passion for organ donation.

And so just a few weeks after getting on campus in St. Louis, my freshman year, I found a team of students that shared my passion for donation. We founded SODA student organ donation advocates then. And after we existed on Washington University and St.

Louis's campus for a few years, we realized that what we were doing struck a chord. And that's when I formed a separate team, mostly made out of Washington students to expand SODA nationwide. So Sarah, what does SODA do? What's your purpose?

Yeah. So our SODA believes that students across the country should be educated about organ donation and should have the opportunity to register if they're interested in doing so. So that's really our core belief to everything we do. And to do so, we have college and high school campus chapters all across the country.

And these chapters have two key goals. One is to educate students about organ donation and the other is to register students as organ donors. And we really think that education and registration, these education and registration pieces go hand in hand because we want people that are educated and knowledgeable registering as organ donors. Okay.

Did you guys hear this when she was a freshman? Did you just hear that? It was nothing like, so I was trying to figure out where my glasses were. Yes.

So, but the human family though, yeah, you guys pushed forward and we liked that. So you started it. So and then it started to grow. So where are you now with SODA?

How many students? How many chapters? What you got going? Yeah, absolutely.

So as I mentioned, we existed just on Wash U in St. Louis's campus for a few years and about a year or two ago, we started expanding nationwide. And so a year ago, today, we had about six chapters across the country and today we have 18. So you can see from this that we are growing pretty quickly and it's a really fun and exciting time to be part of this organization.

And we're able to work with these passionate students all across the country that have their own connections to organ donation and give them a platform to share their story and advocate for this really important cause. All right. So we're in Louisiana. So if there's somebody listening, we have LSU, Xavier, all these colleges here.

So students listening, how do you get started? What do you do? The first thing I would do if you're interested in starting a chapter is to go to our website, which is SODANational.org. SODA National.org.

And from there, you can learn more about how to start a chapter. You can take a quiz to figure out if you're eligible to start a chapter. Once you go to our website, I encourage you to form a team of three students that share your passion for donation. We really think students are more successful when they're working in a team and it's also a lot more fun to do to do organ donation advocacy as part of a group.

So find your team of three students and then use the application on SODA's website to become a chapter. So I like that. So we're on campuses and we work with these classes. So it's something that you do like at Telgates and the library is it posters that are put up.

What are some of the hard core things that they are pushing out to promote donation? Once students are part of a SODA chapter, once they get approved by our team, we connect them with their local organ procurement organization and they do events that are relevant and interesting for their community. Our college and high school campus chapters do a variety of, hosted variety of different events on their campuses, but all of the events fall under two key categories. One is education and one is registration.

A lot of our chapters have activities for their booths where they'll recruit students to become part of their chapter. They'll host educational events about different perspectives into organ donation. They'll register students at sporting events or plays or other types of events, even sometimes in their cafeterias. And then they'll more generally spread the word about organ donation on their campus.

So you started SODA back in 2014. Now you are 23 year out of college, working full time. You're about to relocate to Denver for your full time job, but this is still your labor of love, right? It sure is.

I work on SODA outside of my full time job, as you mentioned, in an entirely volunteer capacity. And I'm lucky enough to work with eight or nine other passionate volunteers to help lead our national team and all of us again working on volunteer capacity to help support these students and organ procurement organization partners around the country. So have you reached out yet now that you're planning on moving to Denver to donor alliance out of Denver, the OPO that services that area? That's a great question.

I think it's 16 OPOs across the country, but we don't yet work with donor alliance, and so that will have to be next on our list. Great. All right, so, Sarah, SODA's impact. Fill us in.

So as I mentioned earlier, we have 18 chapters across the country. A year ago, we only had six chapters. So as you can imagine, our impact has increased quite a bit over the past year. This past semester alone, we had more than 350 students register as part of official SODA events.

And we also helped educate more than 1,000 students about organ donation. So those are just a little bit of insight into the impact that we're making. We expect this impact to only keep increasing as our number of chapters grows over the coming semesters. Sarah, to take it back to you and your family.

I know you mentioned that your sister was a liver donor. I'm wondering if y'all have ever met her recipient. Yeah, so we've had the unique privilege of getting to know Trish, who was the recipient of my sister's liver. And it's been a particularly inspiring experience for my family to meet her.

We actually saw her just a few weeks ago in Upstate New York. And Trish has become a really important part of her family. And we're grateful that she's able to help continue Laura's legacy, but also to continue to leave a meaningful life herself. She's a special education teacher.

She owns her own gym. And so she's really living a great life and making a huge impact within her community. Do you ever take a day off? I do.

I just got back from a few weeks' vacation. So I definitely get myself a great year in that. I love it. I love that you're putting these students to work.

We too try to spur those healthy conversations about organ tissue and eye donation. So how has working with SODA help other volunteers with their healing that you found because you are part of that donor family? You have met the recipients. So are you seeing those connections?

Yeah, absolutely. One of the things I love most about SODA is that we're able to provide other passionate students a platform to share their story, to activate that passion that they have so deeply ingrained in them. And one of the students that started a chapter at Quinnipiac University in Connecticut, her name is Nicole, and she's a double lung recipient. And I actually had the chance to meet her at Mount Sinai where I currently work.

And we did a registration drive together at Mount Sinai's campus to help share, spread the word about organ donation and get more people registered as organ donors. And, you know, for Nicole, SODA has been an incredible way to share her passion and to explain how receiving a double lung transplant was obviously life changing and life saving. So meeting people like Nicole is really validation that the work that we're doing matters. And we hear that you have a blog.

Can you tell us about that? Yeah, we have a newly released blog. You can find it on our website, SODANational.org. And we're super excited to be able to share stories of our amazing chapter leaders like Nicole.

You can actually find a spotlight about her on the blog. I sometimes write letters explaining SODA's strategy and vision. We also provide tips to our chapter and we share spotlights of our national leadership team. So you can get a lot of interesting content on our blog and you can also submit blog posts.

So if you have a story to share, we'd love to hear from you. And you can just go to our blog with a website and you can find the forum to submit your own blog post there. I love it. You know, we always talk about on the podcast one person making a difference.

Well, Nsera, we're going to give that to you today. You're out there. This is extra. It is from the heart.

It is your passion. And it is amazing. So we thank you so much. You mentioned a couple of times, SODANational.org.

Joey's going to remember it because that's what we call we're drinking a soda. I grew up learning about SODA as pop. And then it came soda as I got older. So it's so national.

So it's just spelled out that S-O-D-A student organ donation advocates. And Sarah, we can't thank you for all you do to help us make life happen. It's been a pleasure to talk to you guys. Thank you so much.

Thanks for all you do. This is the Get to Life podcast, guys. And at this point, we take a moment for mental health. Yeah, let's just see what Sarah's got in store for us today.

No pressure. We're going to be talking about a hot topic. Food anxiety. Oh, I get anxious every time I see a pickle or smell a tomato.

It's a explain and to do, Sarah. Okay, so let's clarify. None of us are actually registered dietitians. But we all eat and I did get a lot of information from a good friend, Amy Davis, who is a registered dietitian.

Okay. Thank you, Amy. So let's also go ahead and say when we're talking about food anxiety, what we're talking about is when people experience anxiety over how much they eat, when they eat, and if they're eating unhealthy foods. So it's not just when a certain food touches the rest of your food, but that's what makes me anxious.

Right. I'm more so tired of your food to diet. Yeah. So it's a whole nother topic there.

Yeah. We're not talking about what we like and don't like. It's more so about what are the norms in society today based off of beauty and how that can create unhealthy relationships with foods. Okay.

Now we also do live in the South. Right. We want this to be a, we're not preaching here about only eat vegetables. I would love to say that.

Yes, but it can be unrealistic for some people's lifestyles. So really too, and today there's just so many food options out there and there's so much information about food. So some tips that I got from my friend, Amy is number one, a really good way that what you can do while you're eating is to take a deep breath and to do check and stretch your meals. To make sure you stop eating when you're full.

So do a quick check and halfway through your meal. See how you feel. Take a deep breath. I still have half of my, I still have half of my own, which because I checked in today and I said, I really need the rest.

I need the rest of these chips. So I'll make sure I finish that and then keep that on which the other half of later. You balanced it out. Good joke.

Good. Another really good tip to have is to just keep it really simple and eat foods that you actually enjoy and just portion control it. Oh, see, no, not going to work for me. That's true because, you know, I grew up and my mom always taught me, you know, there's starving kids and Ethiopia.

You got to finish eating it. And then so it's ingrained into my head that I've got to finish the plate. So I've, as an adult, I realized being a, you know, 29 year old that I've been to the last. 40 years that, you know, you can't just do that.

I mean, I've got to understand portion control. And that's one of the ways that I try to at least stay somewhat, you know, fit and energetic and not overdo it is exactly that when my mom or when, you know, of course we eat a lot of, like you mentioned fried, we eat a lot of rice and gravy, which is my favorite. I mean, I can't turn it down, right? But the portion control part makes me comfortable with what I'm eating.

Yeah. And so I'm not obviously like you mentioned. Yeah, sweets are my issue. But while I'm eating and it's so good, I'm like, I probably shouldn't be eating, but I don't want to waste it like I'm with Joe.

Right. Yeah. You know, it's a balance between feeling wasteful and also feeling good in your own body. So what foods make you feel good too?

There is always going to be a time when eating a piece of cheesecake is going to make me feel really good. Oh, yeah. But maybe it's so you don't feel so bad about yourself and you don't have those negative internal thoughts about yourself, only eat it every other day or, and also just don't beat yourself up. You guys just, well mine's a treat because I've been doing the track.

I've been working out a little bit, working up to three miles and I'm like, oh, I can have one. Yeah, that's exactly why I work out in the morning. There's no such thing as a perfect body. It's you want to feel good in your own body.

That's important. Yes. Don't ever do it every now and then. Yeah.

They're on a veggie. They're on a veggie. I had lettuce on my sandwich. There you go.

I had an onion. For those who don't know an onion, which is when you don't use the bread, you wrap it in a piece of lettuce. What did you have today, Miss Sarah? I also had an onion which is so good.

It's so grown up. I love it. All right. Maybe you have a topic you'd like Sarah to tackle info at the gifted life.

In every episode of the gifted life, we honor a hero. Today's hero is Justin Shuffler. And we learn about Justin from his family. He was a handsome young man with bright blue eyes and a smile that would light up a room.

He was a great son, daddy, brother, and uncle. He loved knowledge and learning all he could about everything he could. He was a big-hearted person. He would help anyone with anything he could.

He was a very healthy young man. He was an electrician, and he was good at what he did. Our lives are so empty without him. I miss him so much every day.

His daughter misses her daddy so much. But she understands that he wanted to help others when he passed. We are all very proud of him for being a donor and helping others. We are so proud of Justin.

He left this world helping others as he did when he was here. He may not be a hero to most people, but to us, he has always been our hero. So let us pause and say thank you to Justin for the gift of life. In our Q&A segment, Lori, this one's for you.

I'm excited. I'm a teacher at a high school. How can I share information about organ tissue and eye donation with my student? Number one.

Yes, I'm so excited when this happens. First of all, there are community educators across the country who are just cheering, right? We love when teachers reach out because our goal is to educate, to spur those healthy conversations about organ tissue and eye donations. In Louisiana, if you want to speak for example, you can go to our website, lopa.org.

You can request a speaker, you can send us an email, info at lopa.org. We try to be as easy as possible, fine, because we want to partner with you. You're outside of Louisiana. AOPO is a great website.

That's a good tool for you. AOPO.org. There is a tab that says about OPOs under that, find your OPO, the closest one to you. What do you do is pick up the phone and say, I just want to help these students learn a little bit more.

How can I help? And then we will partner with you. Do you want a speaker? Do you want some one clinical?

Joey, do you travel? He does. Everywhere. So maybe you want to look at graphs and things like that.

So we have coach, you guys heard us talk about coach Swallow before, a veteran teacher nearing retirement. But we'll just have a conversation. This is where we are in our lessons. And this is what they know so far.

How can you help? And then we partner together. So we're flexible work on his time schedule. And we are just so grateful to be invited in.

So thank you. Thank you. Am I excited? I am.

I hope you reach out today. And thank you. Yeah. What a great question.

If you have a question, go ahead and email us at info at the gifted life.org. Or you can give us a call at 504648 347. Okay, guys. That is episode 119.

Thank you so much for listening. We enjoy talking to Sarah. It'll definitely be fun to watch so to grow and possibly even reach thousands more. That means we're making life happen together as a team.

And that's what we talk about. Hopefully, it'll spur those healthy conversations about organ tissue. And I don't nation, are you inspired to register guys? Register me.org gets a one stop shop.

Also don't forget the giftedlife.org. It's an easy way to find us. And listen to us wherever you listen to your podcast on Apple Podcast, Google Podcast. And make sure you give us a five star rating so others can find us.

Woop, woop. That's a thank you. All right. On social media, Facebook, where the gifted life podcast, Twitter, Instagram, gifted life pod guys.

So check those out. And thank you so much. You are part of our team. And we do hope that you go out and do something you would normally do to help us make life happen.

That's what it's all about. Talk to you soon. This is a production of LOBA, or the Louisiana Organ Procurement Agency. The gifted life is hosted by Lori Steele, Joey Buudro, and Sarah Blaymore, 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.