Oh, and welcome to the gift-to-like podcast where we have conversations about organ tissue and I-O nation. I'm Roy Steele. I'm Joey Bujiro. I'm Sally Gentry.
What? That does not sound like... You're missing us a little Sally Gentry today. Sally is not with us today.
That was pretty bad in depression actually. That's all I got. So Sally, you can't be with us here in the studio. She is still recovering from the flood waters of August 2016.
Yeah, we talked about it before, but she took a big hit. You know, her house was flooded for weeks and weeks. And I was fortunately one of the ones. I feel good that we were able to go out and give her a hand there, kind of pick things up, tear down some fences and things and just some of the odd jobs that needed to be done.
And I was supervisor. Yes, of course. And now she's finally gotten some workmen coming out there. So she'll be working along today, but we'll be hearing from her later on.
She is almost whole. It's hard to believe. So like four and a half months after that flooding event. So that's kind of hard and people are still recovering in Louisiana.
So we have to keep that in mind. But Sally will be joining us later by phone. She's gonna tackle some issues that we'll talk about. But on this episode today, we are gonna highlight one of our many events here in Louisiana where we honor our heroes, where we celebrate life.
One of our guests here on the podcast said, you can do anything if your why is big enough. We're gonna hear about a lot of people's why's today. And then we'll be having an in-house guest, our very own CEO, the big dog, Kelly Rannum. No pressure.
And she's gonna give us a little bit about a year and wrap up. Tell us a little bit about how we've been making life happen here in Loba. Okay. And so she's gonna talk about this year.
We've been doing this podcast going on two years now. Almost two years. That's amazing. Episode 46.
And whose idea was this? Is she gonna mention that? I'm sure she will. The Kelly cast or the podcast.
All right. When our sweet Sally rejoins us, she is gonna cover stress anxiety. Well, she knows about that right now. Yes.
Stress. Anxiety. Holiday. So you'll want to stay tuned for that.
And of course, as always, we'll be honoring our hero. Yeah. That is so much more on this episode of The Gifted Life. And we know lots of people around this time of the year are going to be getting together with family and friends.
It's just what we do. Hey, spread the word. I mean, making new years resolutions. We're gonna help make life happen.
One of the ways you can do that is spreading the word about this podcast. Absolutely. We're on iTunes, Google Play, PocketCats, or any of your favorite podcast apps or you can just find us on our local website at loba.org slash podcast. You're so professional when you do that.
I love it because we're out there. You can find us. It's so easy to do. Also, we're on those social media sites and our followers are growing every day.
So donate life, Louisiana on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can find us at donate life, LA, and then we have the hotline. We love it to be interactive. Are you gonna be selling it to the hot line?
Absolutely. We want you to give us a call. We want to hear from you at 504-648-3477. One more time, just like Sally would do it.
504-648-3477. I brought a smile on my face and we hope it did for you too. Alright guys, here we go. The Gifted Life Podcast.
In our community segment, we're gonna take you out to one of our. Louisiana events where we honor our heroes and we celebrate life. This event, the Robley Run for Life, held in November in the Baton Rouge area. And that's an event you and I both attended together.
Yes, we did. We talk about the power of one person making a difference in this time. It's Paul Rabela. Mr.
Rabela has been the brainchild behind all this. The Rabela run for life for now six years. Yeah, and he says, and counting. And counting, absolutely.
And it's all to help make life happen. Let's take a listen. Lori Steele here. Robley Run for Life 2016.
I'm here with our name, Man. Paul Rabela of Rabela Estate Planning. You have been behind us for six years and you promise to do more. Why do you do that?
It's real simple. Get out here and you hear the stories of these families that have been affected by organ donation, either as a donor or recipient family. It just motivates you and inspires you to want to spread the word and get more people involved and get their heart on their driver's license because to hear a grandmother talk about how she could not have been a grandmother had it not been for organ donation for her grandson, really, really inspirational. So really happy to be a part of a great organization like Loca in this great event and looking forward to more years.
Yeah, and what was incredible this year too, you presented an award to Team Sean Elizabeth. They've been coming since the beginning, but this is their 25th year of honoring their donor. Incredible. Peggy and Don, they worked so hard out at Donaldsonville to spread the word, really celebrate Sean Elizabeth's life.
In fact, we were fortunate to give her a special gift this year, a tree of life that was customized and made just for her with Sean Elizabeth's initials on it. It was really a moving moment for me, seeing how much she embodies the organ donation cause. So for people who haven't been to this event, they should come, but why do you think they should come? I mean, to me, it's a bucket list item because there's so much stuff out there in the world and the world is so needy as somebody said and there's so much negativity.
But when you come out here, it's all positive, it's inspirational and motivational and it gets the end of the holiday season and that positive spirit. Yeah. And we learn from each other, we get inspired by each other. It's awesome.
We appreciate you. Over $100,000 for organ donation education in our area because of you. Truly a team effort. It's Lori and Lopa, it's teams, it's corporate sponsors, many others, truly a team effort, just by a part of it.
Yeah, we always on the podcast, it takes one person to make a difference. You had an idea, you teamed with us and wherever you are now. How about that? Just six years later, looking forward to seven.
All right, so 2017, we'll see you. See me and many more people. Let's do it. All right, sounds good.
Thank you both. Lori, steal here, Rob, I run for life 2016. Peggy and Don Guillot, this was quite a day, quite a year for your team, Team Sean Elizabeth. Tell us why you work so hard to get the largest team award.
Congratulations, but why do you do what you do, Peggy? I continue with promoting organ donation because it gives me a purpose to our losing Sean. It is like she has over these 25 years influenced us to continue promoting life. So I thank God for her as a gift to us.
And I thank her because we're able to continue her legacy through LOPA. And I also want to thank Lori Steele because she is so enthusiastic and she keeps us up. So without her, we might not be here today. I want to also thank all of my team members for signing up because without them, we would not have walked away with the largest team award today, Yay team.
And I think we recruited Paul Rebolle to put us over the 50 mark. So thank you, Paul. And I'd like to also thank Robin Rishard. She keeps our office together and she keeps us together.
And she helps me tremendously to stay on point. Without her, I do not think we could have accomplished what we did this year. So thank you, Robin. Yeah, you guys were rocking.
Let me tell you, I can see why you're successful in business because man, they were rocking it late at night, early in the morning. And they got it the largest team 51. Yes, you're right because Paul signed up on yours to help celebrate the 25th anniversary. So I see your tears in your eyes, Mr.
Don, when you get tears in your eyes, I get tears in my eyes. But this is the day that we come together. We honor our heroes. We celebrate life.
What do you take away? Why have you come back for the sixth year? Well, when you're living a small community and you know what you've been promoting for 25 years and you're here, somebody that's got a heart of kidney or something and whether you were part of it or not. But when you hear that, you really feel grateful through local, law, pay, the whole team and everybody else.
It really makes you feel good. It's incredible to see the numbers for your team, your shirts that you guys designed and you have a little helper, right? That helps. Yes, we're very proud of our granddaughter, Sean.
She is a senior at Ascension Catholic this year and she has been promoting life since she was in grade school. I mean, really talking to her peers about it, talking in the gym, you know, in a group. So we're very proud of her and the design that she's come up with, the very first one was the share and light and give taken from the initials, Sean Elizabeth Guillot, which you know, at 15 years of age, that was very powerful. Yes, we are very proud of her and we appreciate the opportunity to be involved with LOPA.
Great. And so you guys had a special presentation from Paul, the Tree of Life, Sean Elizabeth Guillot's initial. So tell us what you're taking away from that and what you want to say to Paul? Well, we certainly thank Paul for promoting this and the couple that gave us the Tree of Life, which was tremendous and that earned what was you?
Symbol of life. Which made us very proud. And at the time you made the decision to donate, you never realized how many lives you said to him, how far it would go. And 25 years later, we are still promoting life.
And for saving more lives, it's what you do. And so for you, if you had to sum it up in one word, donation would be what? So in one word, donation is... Miraculous.
And you? Yeah. Well, you guys are inspiring to me. I just think I was super cute, little couple, number one, and I love that you work together and I love your team and we appreciate you being here next year.
2017, right? We're gonna do it? Yes, indeed. All right.
Thank you to the Guillots. Thank you. And I think our jaws both dropped 25 years ago. Yeah, it is quite amazing when you think about there was no community outreach.
There was no real education efforts out there about organ donation. I mean, it was not a very common thing, obviously, at the time. So for them to be able to have the foresight and to reach through their grief and say yes, even though, like I said, it wasn't as common as it is, now it's amazing. And she says even 25 years out, donation was part of their healing because they're still talking about their hero, Sean Elizabeth, which is pretty incredible.
Mr. Don mentioned that Tree of Life, it was some metal custom work that was done, but it was the brainchild of our tissue, recovery, manager, Blake, and his family. So we like to say, you know, we're a family and we support these donor families and these recipients as best we can. And that is something that the Guillots will forever cherish.
That was impressive. That was pretty special to be a part of, right? And to see those smiles and to hear Miss Peggy still talking about that, Mr. Don, they're just great donation advocates and 25 years out, just a testament to donation.
Now, we're gonna switch gears around, take you back out to the Robley Run for Life. We're gonna let you listen in on the life now of a little liver recipient. So little Smith McCray was diagnosed with a liver disease when he was born, received a liver transplant from what he calls his donor angel. Now that he's speaking a little bit more, he understands more about his gift and mom and grandma whole family just makes sure that he takes care of that gift and that he is forever grateful.
Let's listen in. Laurie's deal here. Robley Run for Life 2016. I'm here with my main man Smith.
Would you say you and I are like boyfriend girlfriend? Negative. I'm just messing with him. How old are you now?
Seven. Seven. And did you have a transplant? Yeah.
What kind of transplant? Liver. Liver transplant. How long ago do you remember?
Seven and a half. You were just a baby then, right? I guess. Yeah.
He didn't even remember. So what kind of things do you do now like normal kid you would say? FUH! Football is your favorite sports.
How's school going? You have to hear this little dude talking about donation now, living out life. It's amazing. He wouldn't be here if it wasn't for another family who donated another life for us to keep living.
So yeah, it's inspirational and we've got seven glorious years and we're up for 74 and we'll see. We'll see. Yeah, but he's doing good. Active, physical, little boy.
Nobody has a difference. You don't play around anywhere else. And so your mom, this is your baby. You heard moms get up there who lost their babies today.
It's very emotional. But they said yes and they saved lives like your son. So I saw you tearing up. I was tearing up as well.
But what does that do for you? My heart. I mean, Smith was so sick. I was lost to him.
And so I was so close to being one of those moms losing a child, a really young child. And so yeah, our heart goes out to them and we don't know our donor. And so we love coming to events like this. It helps us stay grounded and teach us him, you know, appreciate his wonderful gift and keep going and keep living and loving life.
So I love it. And so we have grandma here. But what do they call you? Evie.
Evie. I love it. So you were up there and that's what I keep hearing echo and you said you wouldn't have been a grandma to this little one. Had someone said yes, right?
Someone's active love and generosity made me Smith's grandmother and made him seven and a half years of being a grandmother. And I can't imagine my life without my grandchildren. So to you, donation is what? Oh, God, it's everything.
It's everything. It's life. These children of my life, I didn't think I could love anything as much as I loved these six little rascals, but they're wonderful. I love them to death.
And Smith is only one of the six miracles, but he is truly a medical miracle. My others are just miracles. It just happened. And that's a grandma-daughter right there.
So it's a family event for you guys. I love that. What do you think you all walk away with after an event like this listening to those donor families? Oh, gosh.
I can't imagine the pain of losing a child, especially a young, young child. I can't imagine the suffering this family went through because we suffered through illness and watched other babies come and go and spend time in the NICU and the PICU. We were there and it's just one of those amazing things when you think about how wonderful it is at this kid in Play soccer today, late all morning. And he complained about school, right?
But he's a good student. Don't let him fool you. And a good student. He's pretty smart, Lord.
Don't let him get ahead of you. I'm with you. I'm 12 points on AR. There you go, buddy.
Eight. 12 points. That's pretty good. High five.
I love that. All right. So Mom, after seeing all this today, after hearing all this, seeing these families, all the hugs that we shared, there's somebody's on the fence about donation. What would you tell them?
I think the biggest thing for us, I guess, living through it is that it doesn't affect one life. We always say it doesn't help Smith's life. It affected our entire family. It saves families, not necessarily lives.
So that's the big thing I think the big takeaway I would try and talk to any kind of donor or potential donor. Think about it. Consider it such an overarching larger impact than you think. We appreciate you guys being here, helping to pay it forward and we'll see you again.
We'll be here next year. We'll be ready. Okay. We're a Steel Hero Robly Run for Life.
I'm here with Ms. Shalita and she is our host for this race on Pennington's campus. So we appreciate you. You do a lot and you do with me a lot.
Your favorite pest, right? Yes, she is. Well, this is so passionate for you because you're a transplant recipient. Yes, I am.
All right. So August 23rd. 2003. Yes, I had a life was going on as usual and I started getting a little sick about two or three weeks later.
I was just finally brought me into ER and I found out I was in four minute liver failure. So I went from working on Friday to getting on the transplant list on Monday morning at five Thursday morning. We did get a liver and I'm doing good. I'm thirteen and a half years out running every year volunteering for LOPA and we just want to say thank you so much to all the people who donate and we appreciate it and it just means so much to us.
Yeah. And I see you got a medal. So you're a runner too? Yes, I did.
I won first place in my age group. And you're pretty proud of that. So you come out to events like this. Your sister was here showing you support.
You hear from these donor families. We have one family, 25 years out. So what do you take away when you go to an event like this one? Well, I first had my transplant.
I felt kind of not bitter, but I felt guilty that I was getting an organ and someone else was getting, you know, someone else literally died and lost someone to give me an organ and give me the chance to live. But I did have the opportunity to talk to a guy who lost his daughter and his wife and he told me that I really shouldn't feel guilty about it because as a donor father and husband he really felt and liked to hear positive stories from the recipients. But my family and I are so grateful again. This was very much a surprise to me.
I had not been sick at all. So this was really, really a surprise to me, but everything's worked out fine and we just take it one day at a time. Biggest thing is I want to just say thank you to all the donor families and as a result of my receiving the organ, I have a lot of friends, families and others to sign up and I am a volunteer below. Yeah, and we appreciate it.
We love you. We love you too. Congrats on your medal. Thank you.
Got to love Shalita and you'll see her around the state as she travels to help us make life happen. But she doesn't go out alone. She's with her family. It's a family thing.
I've seen her multiple times. She comes out to all of our races. And she knows. I see her, but mostly from behind as she's a speed and pass me at each of the races, but she runs at our Ryan's race in April.
And then she also runs at our trail run for life. That's in October. So she's been great at paying it forward and helping us out at all of our runs. And her family as well.
So thanks to everyone who helps us make life happen. At this point in the podcast, a special guest in the Get to Life podcast studio. We are excited our biggest cheerleader, biggest supporter throughout the year. Absolutely.
We have our fearless leader, the one, the only CEO, Kelly Rannem. Well, Kelly. Thank you. You bring me out once a year at Christmas.
And that's how you can tell us all the great things that we're going on here at LOPA. But we really appreciate you joining us. I will try to condense it into the two minutes you've given me. Are you going to take three year the Boston?
Yes. It's been a great year. And I think we have a lot to be proud of. I'll kind of start off with our donor family picnics, which were in April and September of this year.
Record numbers at Global Wildlife with over 1,600 families joining us. And over 250 at Dixie Corn Maze in Shreveport. We did that one in September. And they were kind enough to open their doors a week early for us.
And it was just a great time for everybody. So I'm really happy. And thank you all for helping us out. So I have done quite a few donors this year.
So thank you to all our donor families out there that have continued to support us. We are on pace. I don't know if you know this, Joey, but we are on pace for being the second highest donor year. Yes, we are.
We're on pace to finish right around 600 Argan's transplanted. So that's amazing out there last year. We finally crossed that 600 barrier and reached 613. So it's amazing.
And when you think about it, Kelly, just six years ago, we had never crossed the 500 barrier. We never saved 500 lives in a year through Argan's transplanted. And just six short years later now, that's been gone for a couple months now. And we're hoping to continue moving on, moving that needle and saving more lives.
That's their vision. That's their leadership. And not only with Oregon's transplanted, but with tissues too, right? Yeah, absolutely.
The tissue team and the CSC have been phenomenal this year. And we were looking at a pace to be at our third greatest year for tissue donors. So really a lot to be proud of and a lot of lives saved, a lot of lives enhanced. And that's what we're here for.
The other thing that we've had going on this year, there's just so much, but I'll try to narrow it down. We won the Modern Healthcare Best Places to Work Award again this year. This is our fifth year in a row. We got Joey doing a whoop.
That's a new team. Number eight in the country. We're shooting for one, but aim high and hopefully get there. We also were able to place in the city business best places to work again this year as well.
And this is our fourth year for that one. We also won a quality award for the state. It's a commitment to performance award level two. And it's a lot of hard work on our quality department and our staff supporting the efforts of the quality department.
And we also have to thank all those volunteers, those inter-families, those recipients who work right alongside with us to help make life happen. Absolutely. They're there for every one of our events, our runs, our golf tournaments, really anything that we do in the community, they're a huge part of it and I don't know what we would do without them. And we love them taking part in our podcast.
We love for it to be interactive. We talked to you on an earlier episode and we called it the Kellycast. Was this your brainchild? You brought this back?
Troy and I can fight over that, but I do believe I came up with it. Troy's our IT guru here on the podcast. But I'll give it to Troy. He's made it happen.
Somebody that finally listened to me without me having asked three times. I think that the podcast is just amazing. We have over 25,000 downloads and I just want to give a shout out to Ghana because they're really, they love us. They care about us.
They share about all the things that we have to say and we'd love for you to call in sometime. And that's an actual fact. Like we are being downloaded in Ghana. 200 plus times.
200 plus times. We've had to be made friends at the transplant games to allow us to travel and bring those ideas back home which just helps us here in Louisiana to do a better job. Absolutely. And I think the podcast is we're hoping to make it more of a national presence and have more of our organ procurement organization colleagues become a part of it.
We've had that happen a couple of times and we'll be doing that more in the year coming and hopefully spreading out some educational in services through podcasting. So a lot of good things come in the future with podcasting. Including a new studio but I'll get to that. Oh, that makes me excited.
I love that. But one more thing for 2016 before we move on. Post-dating flood which as you know if you've been listening to the podcast impacted our own Sally gentry and a lot of our LOPA folks but LOPA was one of those businesses helping to rebuild. Yeah.
We were actually really fortunate that our staff went to the stores and bought up all the bleach and boxes and towels and mops and fans and anything you could think of and loaded up their cars and didn't think twice about driving to Baton Rouge and Lafayette to help the nine staff members that were affected. And then we were further supported by our OPO community or procurement community by sending in well wishes and lots of positive thoughts and prayers and of course a lot of financial contributions that we were able to give to the staff members that lost everything. And just to tell you how devastating Sally's not in the studio because she is still piecing her life back together almost four and a half months post historic flooding which was something else. So we all need to come together and that's kind of what we preach here at LOPA right?
We give. We give. We try and we appreciate everyone who works alongside with us. So we kind of cover 2016 really quickly in a nutshell.
We're looking forward to 2017 lots of exciting things happening. I think the first thing for us is that we have the floor graph coming up in January at the Rose Parade. It's a donor family from the Shreveport area Ricardo Buck Brown is our donor and his mom Benita Wilson and we're going to get the recipient to actually be able to go with them and participate in this wonderful event. And LOPA has actually been fortunate enough to have floor graphs on the float since 2004.
And that's something that we'll continue to do to honor our donor family. And that is quite the honor. And I love hearing from the families when they come back home about the experience. It's so emotional.
There's so much going on but they are left with just a full heart which is amazing to see. It's a beautiful event. Yeah. So that's something we'll continue doing.
Something about a building. Yeah. LOPA is moving into a new building on the North Shore and Mandeville technically Covington. We brought the property this year and cleared it and actually have a foundation.
We'll actually go in vertical after the first of the year. So if you're driving down I-12 towards Covington 190 exit, you'll see us on the right side by a big detention pond that they like to call a lake. But it's really not that fancy. It's a link to me.
So it's very exciting for us to have a lot of new things. It's not just going to be an office but it's going to serve as a clinical space for us to be able to move into the future. Yeah. I was going to say not just a building but there's so much that we're going to be able to do with that as an organization.
So not only the change with the new building going vertical in January, we're also going to be having quite a bit of changes within our LOPA processes, not the least of which is going to be a new labeling system on the same lines of UPS. The way UPS has done their labeling system, they've helped us in the OPO, Oregon Procurement World with our labeling and packaging of the organs. And then we're going to have a new electronic medical record system called Transplant Connect. It's out there.
Other organ recovery agencies have been using it and then we're going to it in the next few months as well. So Kale, that's a whole lot to take on here. There's a lot to take on but in order to move into the future and be better at what we do, we need better tools to do the job. So I think the building is one aspect right now.
We're separated in two buildings and it's very difficult to keep everybody together and moving forward on the same page when you're separated by even a half a mile. And so there's a lot of clinical aspects to the building that we'll be able to utilize it for. So we're looking forward to that. And the teaser from earlier, there will be a recording, a real recording studio.
Now, this is very impressive where we're at, but it was not means we were legit. Whoa, right? All right. So we've been through 2016, we're looking forward to 2017.
So from where you sit, how do things look? I think that the future is bright. It's a little scary. I think anytime you enter into something new, we've been located here on the South Shore and the Metery area for the last 25 years.
So it's a big change to move across that puddle known as Lake Pontchartrain. And it's a change for our staff and we recognize that there'll be some new opportunities for people that live in the North Shore to actually come work with us and companies to work with us to better partner and spread the word about Oregon and Tissue and I donation. And we look forward to really all of that happening. But yeah, a little scary because it's a lot of new stuff.
It's a slightly covered experience. And some people are scared of change, but sometimes I love it. I love it. Oh, we need to lead her with vision.
And that's what you are, man. So we appreciate you. Thank you so much for joining us here on the podcast. See you next year.
Kelly. You can come back any time. Like open imitating. I'm just going to put that out there.
Kirsten didn't have muffins this time. I have no cookies, no chocolate. What are we doing here? Maybe in the new studio.
That's right. No food in the new studio. No food in the new studio. No food in the new studio.
No food in the old show. What will we do? Well, we appreciate it. Lopez CEO Kelly random.
We have reached our family support segment and Sally usually takes the lead. She's joining us now by phone. Hey, Sally. Hey, Sally.
I'm going to be covering from the August floodwaters. Are we making progress? Yes, we are making progress. I will not go into detail because it would take up the whole podcast.
Probably would. But we're moving and it's all going to be good. That's great to hear. I'm sure it looks much different than when you were there.
No, absolutely. I'm sure it does. She has a house now. That's right.
That's right. So is it a coincidence today that you're talking about stress, anxiety paired with the holidays? As you go through this rebuild? No, I think somewhere in the back of my mind, I thought this would be a good topic because it ties in for not only what's going on for many folks who've still affected by the flooding, but for our donor families also.
I'm just going to jump right on into this. There is a difference between stress and anxiety. I'm not so sure that everyone is very clear on that because sometimes, you know, as humans, we have a tendency to exaggerate and go, oh my gosh, this is a lot worse than an anxiety attack. Well, we know what the situation generally is with stress.
But sometimes when you get a family conflict or an important decision and more so far, donor families face in the holidays, that it's very difficult maybe to tell the difference between the two. And sometimes the line does get blurred between what is stress with anxiety. And I think most of us have said, oh my gosh, this is really stressing me out. You can feel your heart rate speed up and muscle tension and you start breathing more rapidly.
And other things right there are usually tied to an event that you can identify. And that's what makes a difference there. Stress is something that you can identify once you've kind of got to handle on it. You can kind of move on through and then you can relax and you know, okay, I've got all that taken care of.
But the problem is when all of a sudden you find out that you just can't function and you're having a really difficult time trying to figure out. It's kind of like when you're walking around and you say, she's kind of like a black cloud hanging over me. That's where you kind of get into the difference between the anxiety and stress. And there is a key difference between the two in that the sense of helplessness.
And that usually goes along with anxiety. But I know too here at the holidays, as we just mentioned about families dealing with the sudden death of the loved one, sometimes it's very hard to tell the difference. You know, I don't know, you have several children in your family, Lori. I'm thinking you get stressed out during the holidays.
It's just a bit sad. It's a little bit of anxiety and complete helplessness. That's right. Well, that's numbers that maybe you've not seen in a while or maybe they're not your most favorite.
You still like them a lot, but here you are, all these people coming into your home. And I think that what happens to our donor families is that grief really robs people of their emotional and physical energy. And how much energy do you have to invest in the holidays when you're still grieving that death of your loved one? So, you know, along with that way of thinking, you just have to consider how much time can you spend with family and friends and don't ignore how you feel because you're worried about what other people might think or feel about you.
You're not obligated to be cheerful to everyone that walks through your door, but you're trying your best. I realize that. But sometimes people say, you know, I've never felt lonely or that when all these folks are here. I think that's to get overwhelmed with all the feelings you're dealing with and trying to cope and or adapt to the death of your loved one.
So, you know, you spend time with family and friends that will you feel safe and comfortable around? You know, it does make a difference. And so, sometimes people find just going out and helping out, you know, maybe a food bank or, you know, making a donation on someone's name to a favorite charity, if there's or cause. I think sometimes that helps to kind of help to move away from that pain and stress of the holidays.
But the main message, I think, for everyone, regardless of how stressed you may be or anxiety-ridden that you may become, just remember to be kind to yourself and know what your limits are. Yeah, at first Christmas, after my mom died over 20 years ago, it was just complete emptiness. So, I hear exactly what you're saying. And so, I had to fight to get out of that in those years following.
But now we're doing exactly what Sally said. We had a local Christmas crusade collecting toys for the less fortunate. And so, now the whole family's involved and you try to help. And then with the flood recovery, we try to do as much as possible.
So, a lot of truth in what you speak, Sally, and we appreciate that we will continue this conversation on our next episode of The Gifted Life. Honoring a hero, we do it in each and every podcast. Today, our hero is Chad Griffin. Yeah, Laurie, this is from the family.
Born the last of six children, Chad was our golden-haired angel boy. His amazing intelligence became evident early, as he was reading from children's books by two and a half years old, and could read and comprehend the stories in a newspaper by three years of age. Born in a musical family, Chad was drawn to the guitar and showed a natural ability to play any instrument. But found his passion as a vocalist.
Our sweet music man was humble and kind. He never judged others and kept everyone smiling with a goofy joke or witty comment. The coming in Oregon Donner was so fitting with his character, as he was generous to others his whole life. His heart failed at the end, but his heartbeat lives on in all whom knew Chad Griffin.
And you can just hear how proud his family was of him, and I love to learn more about these heroes from their families. You can too. On our heroes page at lopa.org, you can see more pictures of Chad. Learn about other heroes here in our great state.
At this point, let's pause and say thank you to Chad Griffin for the gift of life. We have reached our question and answer segment. We're always wanting this to be interactive. We're asking you to call in on this segment.
We are going to let you listen to a voicemail that we received on our podcast Hotline. That hotline is 504-648-3477. But a great little donor mom who has come to know and love Miss Jada Mae-ah, left us this voicemail and this inspiration. Let's listen.
Hey guys, I'm Jada Mae-ahn. It's my turn to talk about organ donation. It's my turn to talk about my daughter, Drew Elizabeth. She's my hero and she's my rock star.
As a result of a ruptured brain aneurysm, Drew Elizabeth gave the remarkable gifts of life and sight in 2007. To know a sweet silly loud Drew was to love her. No party started without some Drew Elizabeth. We've had the opportunity to get to know her kidney and pancreas recipient Steve of Tech for Canada, Texas.
He's the coolest guy that we consider a lifelong friend. He says his two steps has never been any better. My advocacy about organ donation is so important to me. At the Johnatruz death, organ donation became a light for us.
It was like a flashlight leading us through a very dark time. Drew's gifts of life and sight continuously remind me of the fun that she brought into a lab. She now shines that light on Steve, her other recipients and their families. Nine years later and I'm still advocating for saying yes to organ donation and I always will.
I can't fathom saying anything but yes to be an organ donor. I'm encouraging you guys to be that bright light and say yes to organ donation. It is all about making a difference in the life of others. And we love Jada Mae-ahn.
It's a very special donor mom to us. And it's so nice that she can't imagine people not registering. And you guys can register too. Please look us up on lopa.org.
We have a big button that says register on our homepage. Go ahead and click it. Go out and do that today, right? It doesn't take a lot of time but it makes a huge difference.
This could be your way of helping to make life happen. We are closing yet another episode of the gifted life podcast. Yay us. 46, comment down in.
Yeah, we couldn't do it without all those wonderful partners within Lobo and those outside of Lopa, our partners in the community. Yeah, like Paul Rabelle. Who we mentioned earlier, the power of one. He's taking that idea of a race and he's done it for six years and counting now.
Yeah, with Rabelle as state planning and he said so many people were doing their state planning and then asking him about organ donation. So he said, you know, I need to find out about this. He did. And he says, I need to make a bigger difference.
So we talk about that one person making a difference. Boy, he's really making a difference. Over $100,000 race for organ donation over the six year period and more to come all because one man reached out and wanted to educate. Amazing.
And of course, we want to thank our esteemed CEO, the wonderful Kelly Rannem, but not only for coming in, but allowing us to continue to do this podcast to educate you all. And it's a really fun thing for us. And then every time we can get her in, of course, anytime you want to come back, Kelly, Mike is open, open invite. And what I love about her is that she allows us the freedom to use our talents for how we see fit to make life happen and we work as a team.
And that is pretty cool in itself. So we thank you. We salute you, ma'am. And our very own Sally.
Sally, I mean, through this tumultuous time that she's going through to be able to find just a minute, even though she's got workers at her house right now rebuilding, to be able to get on and help educate about stress and anxiety, especially in such a difficult time throughout the holidays. And all she just makes a priority, makes donation a priority. And we follow her lead. And we also have to thank Ms.
Jada Mae on for calling in. She always likes to talk about her rock star. You heard her light up talking about Ms. Drew.
And we use Drew's story in a lot of our classes. When everybody sees that cute face, they can't believe that that's a hero that she saved lives. And I think it connects with them like she can. I could too.
So it's a team effort guys and we work together to make life happen. And you can be part of that team, right? Are we making New Year's resolutions? What's on your list, man?
Register. Registering. Well, you should already be. Of course, everyone I know is registered, Laurie.
I mean, that's a given. That's right. So, you know me, you register. We've reached, you know, half the population and we keep pushing.
We want everyone in the state of Louisiana to be registered and it's easy, Lopa.org. There's a huge button that says register. It does not take a lot of your time. And then we also want to educate.
So if you're looking for new things in 2017 to get involved with, to make a difference, join our team. There's also a volunteer tab and that'll go to the community educator near you. So get involved today. It's all within your comfort zone.
What are you comfortable doing? Where can you excel? That's where we pay you. So it's a great gift to give yourself.
We hope you enjoy your family, your friends. We thank you for spending part of your time with us here on the Gifted Life. And we hope that you go out and do something today that you don't normally do to help make life happen.