Laura and I are heading out to University of Iowa this coming weekend… I was invited to
Beyond being around a bunch of other heart and lung recipients, as well as some people waiting for these gifts, there will be some medical staff there, and one or two people from Iowa Donor Network who I just adore… And University of Iowa takes care of Kari’s heart too. Kari’s heart recipient, Sandy, may be there – but it’s actually a longer drive for her than it is for me!!! I’ve met her before – she’s a wonderful person – and if she can’t make it, I get to be around the people who take care of her heart. I’m very much looking forward to heading out there!
I also signed up for my 8th Hustle up the Hancock… “Regular” registration is not until 8:00am on Monday, November 2nd. I sign up early and pledge to raise $1,000 so that I can have my team created on registration day. Here is what my Hustle webpage reads:
This will be my 8th trip up the John Hancock Center for the RHAMC with my team named Kari’s Klimbers. I’ve had amazing teams, and by the end of this climb my teams will have raised over $200,000.00 to help people breathe. I’ve had incredible climbers, and support from so many generous people.
The reason I can climb 94 floors is in the picture I’m holding. In March 2000, in Iowa, when Kari was 17-years-old, she told her family how strongly she felt about organ donation. Twice. A month later, she passed away and her family honored her wishes.
I was in Chicago. My lungs were failing and I was dying after struggling for 40 years with cystic fibrosis. This beautiful girl from Iowa came into my life in April, 2000. I breathe with Kari’s lungs. She is on my mind and in my heart always.
Among my amazing climbers, for the past five years, several of Kari’s friends and volleyball teammates have come out from Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois to climb with me – in memory of their friend, and to honor the gifts she gave, and the person she was. Can you imagine what I feel like when I’m around them?
This will be my 10th year with her beautiful lungs. I do this to honor Kari and her family – and to honor the precious friends who surrounded her and loved her, and who she loved. I do this in hopes that others will recognize how important being an organ donor truly is, and will decide to someday become someone’s hero, like Kari is mine. And I do this to honor anyone who struggles with lung disease, like I did, in hopes they can someday feel like I feel.
If you have a couple of bucks to pledge me, or someone on my teams – it’s greatly appreciated! But more than anything, I want you to know about the girl who saved my life. And like her, please think about organ donation – sign your registry, and tell your family how you feel. I know a beautiful girl from Iowa who knew how she felt and she told her family. I think about her every single day.
Love, Steve
You can read a little more about her at:
If you’re interested in a $120 tour of 94 floors of all of the stairwells leading to the top of the fourth tallest building in Chicago on Sunday, February 28th, 2010 (with the money going towards a very good cause…), there will be instructions on how to sign up on my www.ClimbingForKari.org website. Sign-up is November 2nd at 8:00am, and it sells out in 30 minutes or less. (p.s. we’re going to the top of the tallest on November 15th… There's still room on my team there too!
