Sometime in 2004, Gift of Hope asked me if I wanted to be one of the pictures on their 2005 calendar… Well, duh… I guess they probably knew that they didn’t have to ask – they just needed to tell me where to show up and what to wear… They scheduled my photo shoot and told me that my shoot was going to be right after they did a photo shoot of a donor wife… I asked them if I could show up early so that I could meet that donor wife. I wanted to give her my perspective of what she and her husband and family have done for someone else – I wanted to give her an idea of what it’s like to receive a gift like they’ve given… It’s one of the things I do, whenever I have the opportunity…
The weather didn’t cooperate – our photo shoots were rescheduled two or three times – and finally scheduled in a way that I couldn’t simply drop in on hers… So one day we just met after work.
That day I learned about Jay, and about Jay’s kidney recipient, Julie – and about her passion for spreading the word about organ donation… She learned about Kari, and my similar passion for spreading the word about organ donation and telling others about Kari – and my enthusiasm about just being able to breathe! We connected – and somewhere between the two of us and Gift of Hope, we decided we would be a good team speaking together about organ donation, from the donor family and recipient perspectives… We are a good team – in 2005, Gift of Hope presented both of us with their “Echo of Life Award” for what we’ve done together.
On New Year’s Day, she represented Gift of Hope on the Donate Life Float in the Rose Parade. I was so tickled that she was selected – I got to ride the year before… She’s done so many wonderful things to promote organ donation. After she lost someone so very precious to her, she’s done so many wonderful things to help people like me get the gifts we need to stay on this planet a while longer. I’m always in awe of donor families – and they amaze me when they stand up next to us, and help us tell others just how special and important organ donation is. She is one of those people who constantly amazes me…
She is Anne Gulotta… Scott and his posse over at Donate Life Illinois just produced a beautiful video about Annie and Jay and their kids, Elizabeth and J.R. titled “What Does Organ Donation Mean to You?”… Please watch it:
They also produced a second video titled, “Thank You – A Tribute to Organ Donation”… It’s a video of a song that Anne’s son J.R. wrote – it turned out pretty awesome as well:
