I spent the evening yesterday at Cottonwood Creek Retirement and Assisted Living. It was their 27th anniversary celebration and they chose to promote organ donation as part of their celebration!!

We provided a program for the residents as they ate dinner. A few of the contestants for Miss Murray donated their time and talents to help with the program. A sweet 90 year old woman then told me she was from Holland and had once been Miss Holland. Meeting her was a real treat for all of us.

Paul Cardall spoke of his heart transplant and then played the piano. The music was incredible. There were also copies of Paul’s new book “Before My Heart Stops” available for sale.

The program ended with a jazz duo playing some very relaxing and easy listening music as people finished eating their desserts. One member of the jazz duo is waiting for a liver transplant and spoke a little about what it is like waiting. It was the perfect ending to a great program.

I had the wonderful opportunity to host our quarterly Volunteer Training Dinner a few weeks ago.  What a fantastic evening!  I truly enjoyed meeting several new volunteers and visiting with a few IDS “veterans”.  We had folks attend from all over the valley to learn about how to best communicate our message of the importance of donation.  We were even blessed with five visitors from Logan– I felt special!  We talked about what IDS is doing in the social marketing arena (Facebook, Twitter, etc. ) and went over several details relating to organ and tissue donation.

However, it wasn’t just the volunteers that were educated that night!  I even learned a thing or two, such as what is an appropriate beverage to serve to transplant recipients!   After several volunteers arrived, I excitedly told them I had brought my new favorite holiday drink to share with them, Pomegranate 7-UP.  Imagine my chagrin when several of them kindly told me that they can’t eat or drink pomegranate!  It interferes with their anti-rejection meds, as does grapefruit and a few other foods.  They were very lovely about it but it was a bit of a “Doh!” moment for me.  So, to any of you planning your holiday party menus, keep in mind the special dietary requirements of your transplant recipient friends!

If you are interested in volunteering with us, you don’t have to wait for our quarterly training to get started!  Click on the “Volunteers” tab on our homepage at www.yesutah.org and we’ll get you going!