Saving lives with walking

The eighth annual Donate Life Run/Walk is from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m. Saturday at Cal State Fullerton’s Memorial Grove. The focus on organ donor families includes teams from Costa Mesa named Team Erich, Linda, Papa Dave, New Lungs and All4Shae.

Team Erich honors Erich Vogel, a heart attack victim who died last year. He donated all of his organs that weren’t needed in the autopsy, along with the corneas, bone and tissue, said Jan Rovan, his mother.

His widow, Bethany Vogel, 33, was able to walk down the aisle in their 2004 wedding because of a tissue donation she received for her knee, Rovan said.

“It isn’t always the big organs,” she said. “Sometimes it’s the little things.”

Team Erich has 41 walkers, ranging in age from Vogel’s 3-year-old son to his 70-year-old mother, according to Rovan.

There will be 7,000 walkers, 3,500 members of family teams, and so far $48,000 has been raised.

Last year, the event ended with $120,000 given through donations and registration fees, said Kathleen Hostert, manager of communications for One Legacy, the nonprofit organ and tissue recovery organization for the seven-county greater Los Angeles area.

In 1998, Hostert said, she donated one of her own kidneys to her husband, Craig.

“To find out I could donate was incredible. We had a daughter who was 2 and a son who was 9, and to know they’re going to have their dad … know their dad will be OK and be able to go to baseball games and everything else a dad should do,” Kathleen Hostert said, as she excused herself for getting choked up.

Kathleen and Craig Hostert, Cal State Fullerton graduates, founded the Donate Life Run/Walk in 2003, after leaving behind many friends still waiting for transplants, she said.

“We felt compelled to do something,” said Kathleen Hostert.

All of the proceeds from the Donate Life Run/Walk will go toward education and publicity to bring community awareness to the need for organ donors, she said.

“Over 79,000 U.S. patients are currently waiting for an organ transplant; nearly 3,000 new patients are added to the waiting list each month,” according to the Congressional Kidney Caucus. “Every day, 16 to 17 people die while waiting for a transplant of a vital organ, such as a heart, liver, kidney, pancreas, lung or bone marrow.”

Due to the media investments that Donate Life makes, the number of organ donors in California increases an extra 2.5% every year. Last year 125,000 donors signed up thanks to Donate Life contributions, according to Elena De La Cruz, media relations specialist for One Legacy.

On Saturday there will be a 5K walk/run as well as a 1K healthy walk. There is a $30 registration fee, $20 for living donors and recipients, $20 for family members in groups of four or more, and $20 for team members of 10 or more.

Afterward, anyone can join in a free family festival, including a performance by Grammy-winning pop/R&B; group All-4-One. Visit donatelifeoc.org for more information and maps. You can register on the website or at the event from 7 to 8 a.m.

“All the donors’ families have that special bond, and it’s an opportunity for the donor families to come out and see the benefit and the gift that they’ve given,” said Kathleen Hostert.