A Seven Corners block party has a serious message
A block party at the Wilston Multicultural Center in Seven Corners on May 9 featured free food, clothing, and backpacks, plus entertainment, kids’ activities, and health screenings. It also focused on something a lot of people don’t want to think about.
The event was sponsored by Infinite Legacy, an organization that encourages people to consider donating their organs after they die.
It’s important to educate the public about organ donations, because 100,000 people are waiting for organs, including some 4,000 in the DMV, said Jecolian Daniels, Infinite Legacy’s director of communications and marketing Thirteen people in the U.S. die every day waiting for an organ, Daniels said.
The event at the Wilston Center was the fourth annual Seven Corners block party hosted by Infinite Legacy. While the event’s main purpose was to host a fun event, it was also aimed at building trust in the community for the concept of organ donation, Daniels said.
Darlene Wood, the community outreach coordinator at Infinite Legacy, encourages people “to realize that once we’re gone, we can save someone’s life.” Her husband is the recipient of a kidney donation, and her sister is an eye donor, she said. “I am very passionate about this work.”
Sixty percent of those waiting from are from minority communities, and 87 percent are waiting for kidneys, Daniels said. Other organs can also be donated, such as hearts, livers, lungs, pancreases, intestines, skin, and corneas. Some people can live for many years with a donated organ.
Once people agree to be a donor, their information goes on a national registry. Organs are allocated through a blind matching system, so patients do not know where their organ came from. Wood urges potential donors to make sure their families know about their wishes.
Afterwards, recipients or their families are given contact information for the donors, so they can write anonymous letters to see whether they want to get in touch, Daniels said.
They often do, she said. “Sometimes family members listen to the recipient’s heartbeat with a stethoscope. It’s very emotional.”
Terry Sarler, an Infinite Legacy volunteer, said her husband, Joel, was living on oxygen tanks due to severe lung disease when he was in his 50s.
After receiving a donated right lung in 2011, Joel was able to live another three or four years. “We were so happy to have him,” Terry said. “You just appreciate every day you have.