San Francisco Giants celebrate “Donate Life Day”

On July 26, the San Francisco Giants held their 20th Annual Organ Donor Awareness Day (now known as Donate Life Day). Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford has been a key part of this event since its inception in 1998 and I am a proud co-founder of the event. It’s an opportunity for the community to celebrate lives that have been saved through organ donation.

A program ceremony included 33 year old Lizzy Craze who had a heart transplant at Stanford University Hospital at age 2! She served as “ball dudette” for the game. Mark Gardner, Giants pitching coach, received a custom “Donate Life” jersey to highlight the 20 years of this event. Mark received the Donate Life Champion award in 2013 for his support and work to promote organ and tissue donation.

The Giant video screen showed highlights of the 20 years of the event and included two separate photographs of Carlos Esquivel, MD, Chief of the Division of Transplant as his initial transplant patients were the inspiration for the first Organ Donor Awareness Day. Dr. Esquivel attended the game as a VIP guest of Donor Network West.

Six-year-old Pochie Kennedy of Napa, who received a liver transplant when he was only eight months old, opened the game by yelling, “Play Ball!”

In addition to the festivities at the Donate Life Day, The Giants will also be providing 20 tickets to transplant patients and their families to attend the August 21 game.

The Giants Donate Life Day is the longest running organ donor event in all of professional sports.