On April 25, our Foundation, the Georgia Transplant Foundation and John & Will Albers hosted the inaugural Living Donor Awareness Night at the home of the Atlanta Braves. Nearly 250 members of the transplant community attended the game to spread awareness of living donation and raise funds to further promote the cause. Prior to the match-up between the Braves and the Marlins, we hosted a pre-game ceremony in the Braves’ Community Clubhouse to honor transplant heroes. The honorees included a living liver donor pair: Paul Hailstone (donor) and Joe Isaksen (recipient), a living kidney donor pair: State Senator John Albers (donor) and his son, Will Albers (recipient) and transplant medical professionals from Piedmont Healthcare: Dr. Joshua Wolf and Julie Hausner, NP and Emory Healthcare: Dr. I. Raul Badell and Dr. Octav Cristea.
Our co-founder, Dave Galbenski, also appeared in a video segment that was shown to fans on the big scoreboard. In the video, Dave shared with fans that over 3,000 people in Georgia are currently on the transplant list waiting for a kidney or liver to become available. An individual that steps up to become a living donor initiates an unassisted double play by saving the life of the recipient and freeing up the availability of an organ from a deceased donor for someone else on the wait list. He further explained that any healthy individual under 60 can donate a kidney or a portion of their liver to a person in need whether they be a family member, friend or a complete stranger. Braves Fans also learned about Living Donor Awareness Night and the honorees via a scoreboard message above the left field visitor’s bullpen.
Over 34,000 fans attended the game which the Braves won 7 to 4. We’d like to thank the Braves Foundation for hosting us and giving us this opportunity!