“Instead of getting stuff at the Fair, you can GIVE something at the Fair.”

The above quote comes courtesty of Jeffrey, photojournalist at KARE-11 who stopped by our booth in the education building this morning.  He was looking for another booth, but admitted that he’d been getting distracted with all of the fantastic things to see at the Fair.  When I told him we were sharing information about donation and registering people, he replied with that comment.  Couldn’t have said it better myself, Jeffrey!

Day one got off to a busy start this morning, with people lined up to enter the education building promptly at 9:00am.  I heard that the hot item is a photo calendar that’s being given away in the building.  We can’t compete with that; we are offering Donate Life wristbands, pencils, lifesavers (because you are one – clever, huh?) and warm fuzzies…incredibly warm fuzzies, as the temperature in the booth feels at least 10 degrees hotter than the August outdoors.

I had the pleasure of meeting Connie, a kidney recipient who is celebrating her 35th year post-transplant.  She was fantastic!  Very bubbly, immensely grateful for the gift she was given and interested in volunteering with LifeSource.  Her transplant took place in Texas and she later found out that her donor was a 19 year old male who was in a motorcycle accident.  All I can say is “wow!” 

Connie, 35-year kidney recipient

I’ll leave you with Connie today, and a question to consider:  What would you do with an extra 35 years of LIFE?

More tomorrow, including how many people we registered today!