UAB Synopsis, Vol. 29, No. 03, January 20, 2010
The Team Alabama/UAB Walk on March 6 will help send dozens of organ recipients and donors to the 2010 Transplant Games in Wisconsin this summer, says Transplant Program Administrative Director Martha Tankersley, CRNP. Tankersley recently announced the captains of more than 20 volunteer teams that are developing methods to reach the walk’s $25,000 goal. Sales of brightly patterned, reusable shopping bags, unique recipe books, food, and other gifts are just a few of the ways the teams plan to raise the funds.
Event leaders say that without UAB, corporate, and community help, fewer than half of the projected team members would be able to participate in the Transplant Games.
Tankersly says, “The Transplant Games Walk and other functions will allow Team Alabama to take one of the largest groups of children and adults to the event. I hope everyone in the UAB community can join a team for the walk, donate to one of the walkers, or help by visiting one of the food and gift sales you’ll be hearing more about.
“The Games are one of the most inspirational events most participants ever will be involved in. They are a celebration of life among recipients and their families and friends, as well as an opportunity to honor our nation’s donors,” she says.
Team captains are:
Jane Love, Cardiovascular Services; Wanda Hawkins, Children’s Hospital Transplant Program; Tandika R. Flemings, UAB Hospital Human Relations; Tammy Mayfield, Home Health Care Services; Wellness Director Stephanie Corwin, UAB Highlands; Clinical Lab Assistant Nichole Mitchell, Transplant Program; Histocompatibility Technologist Rebecca M. Burke, HLA Lab; Guest Services Manager Kerry Shapiro, Townhouse; Operating Room Team Leader Andrea G. Maddox, Perioperative Services; Respiratory Therapy Technologist Lorri L. Pickett, UAB Respiratory Care; Maryannn Boventre, Kidney Transplant; Medical Technologist Elizabeth R. Hood, Blood Bank; Deb McGrew, UAB Hospital associate vice president; Danny M. Watkins, Guest Services; Debbie Sparks, S7 South/Renal Transplant; Catherine L. Newhouse, Rehabilitation Services; Cassandra H. Beard, W7NE/Liver Transplant; Leanne People, SICU; Paige P. Lee, Heart/Lung Transplant ICU; Matthew Malachowski, Pharmacy; Cecile Cherry, Perioperative Services; Christy McDougal, Daisy R. Sparks, Transplant Operations; and John Dodd, Environmental Services.
Organ recipients and Team Alabama members Jo Ann McGuire and Jim Simon have helped lead the fundraising effort for several years. McGuire remembers meetings as early as 1999 in which the Transplant Games began to be a focus for UAB’s large transplant community. “I was 3 weeks posttransplant with a new kidney when Dr. [Arnold G.] Diethelm mentioned the Games to me,” McGuire says. “I could barely walk, but I promised I’d go to the 2000 Games, and it has helped keep me going for the last 10 years!”
Simons, a kidney recipient, says, “It takes at least $2200 to train and send a participant to the Games, and most of them can’t do it on their own, given financial pressures from their medical issues. Right now we have 64 people who want to go to the Games, so we’re working hard to make this happen.”
The 2010 Transplant Games will be held in Madison, Wisconsin, from July 30 through August 4. The National Kidney Foundation (NKF), along with its many affiliates and divisions, presents the NKF 2010 US Transplant Games celebration of life that includes transplant recipients, their friends and families, living donors, donor families, transplant professionals, and spectators from the host community.
The Games are the only national athletic competition for recipients of all life-saving organ transplants, as well as the largest gathering of transplant recipients and donor families in the world. The Games serve to promote the health and fitness of participants while showcasing the success of transplantation, highlighting the tremendous need for more organ and tissue donors, and honoring the thousands of selfless acts of love from donors and their families all over the world. For more information on the event, visit www.transplantgames.org or call 205.975.0588.