Katie Horridge
Second Wind St. Louis
Member
June, 2008
Last October, I got another chance to take part in something that results in life changing benefits for hundreds of people.
The Lung Walk means so much to me in its own personal way, as it does to everyone else in their own personal way. It’s the primary goal of Second Wind to help where we can when times are tough and bills are mounting. A lot of people are not personally familiar with the concept of organ donation. From the time I was nine years old I was aware that this was a powerful way to save lives. A cousin of mine that I was very close to died suddenly in her twenties and my aunt made the decision to donate life. It had a very strong impact on my family and I never forgot reading the letters the recipient’s families sent to my aunt. It made it seem as though Jenny did not die in vain, and seemed in perfect keeping with her character. Several years later I found myself working in the pulmonary division at Washington University School of Medicine in the outpatient clinic known as the Lung Center. I’m sure most of you are familiar with that office. Through my work there I’ve gotten to meet all of the pre- and post-transplant patients, and over time got to know more and more of your stories. Everyone’s journey was incredibly compelling and I knew I wanted to do more. How coincidental (or fated) that I would run into Tom Archer at the Lung Center. You all know him as President and perpetual backbone of this organization; I have known Tom almost all my life – he was the principal of my grade school! After seeing Tom come in for his appointments and getting to know him as an adult; he told me all about Second Wind and the Lung Walk. I immediately knew this was how I could help. That was in 2006, I helped however I could, going to meetings and helping plan the event. In 2007, I started leading my own committee of volunteers and helping with the public relations side. In 2008, even though I no longer work in the pulmonary division I still look forward to meeting so many of you and working with you to help make this our greatest event yet.
As I said earlier, my role in all of this is to serve as the volunteer coordinator for this event. That means I encourage all of you, my family, friends, co-workers, and area organizations to get involved. Even if the only way you can help is to spread the word about this event, we are glad for the help! We have some open positions on the committee for this year’s event if you are interested. We are all involved with Second Wind for our own personal reasons, I invite you to examine yours and help us help as many as we can. Let’s make this year’s Lung Walk a record breaking one!