OK – so it’s Thursday night and I haven’t posted yet… But, I don’t like not posting on my scheduled day so here’s a substitution…
I had started outlining and drafting my post about the inaugural Donate Life Hollywood Film Festival that I had the honor of attending last weekend – but then I had to run out twice this week to procure a particular birthday present. Next time I will not trust a webpage to tell me a place is open until 6:30pm only to find after taking what should have been a 20 minute trip in 45 minutes and not actually finding the place, only to find on a simple call would have clued me in that their summer hours are until 5:30pm – even though it’s not technically summer yet. (Based on the date or the weather…)
Anyhoo – we saw some wonderful and amazing things at the Film Festival… A lot of it was an emotional cry fest, which, I’m OK with now since I’m packin’ girlie lungs. (Nothin’ like a good cry and some chocolate…)
I want to write a little about a beautiful little “Hometown Heroes” news piece about a precious girl, Lilly Allen – and the toddler who saved her life 25 years ago, Matthew Bemis… But that’s going to take a little explaining, because I got to ride the Donate Life Float with Lilly and I met Matthew's parents… It was screened along with the Donate Life Illinois video about Kari and me, “The Circle of Life”, and I got to have a long chat with the lady who produced and directed the piece…
And we saw a few incredible shows that are coming out in the near future. One is a new television series titled “Three Rivers” that looks to be amazing. It takes place, naturally, in Pittsburgh – but the title is also a metaphor in organ donation and transplant for the intersection of the donor and donor family, the transplant team, and the recipient and their family and scenes from the first episode look truly amazing. And, there is a movie that will hopefully come out this fall – maybe around Thanksgiving and football season – titled “The 5th Quarter.” A big part of the story revolves around organ donation, and the most successful season in the Wake Forest Demon Deacon school history. I can’t wait to see the movie because I’ll never forget the 20 minutes we saw!
But – I’m not writing now because I’m tired. However – I will leave you with a link to a post from the “Donate Life Organ & Tissue Weblog” posted by Glenn Matsuki from One Legacy in California. (We have to link to this very cool blog at Revive Hope one of these days soon!) Glenn posted a little slide show and a letter from Sam Jones III – he plays “Chaz Pratt” on E.R. – Laura got to shake his hand – I got to hug him… He wrote a wonderful letter about his feelings about being a part of the Donate Life Hollywood awards dinner… Here is Glenn’s post and Sam Jones III’ letter.
I promise I’ll post more about this soon!
