TRIO Chapter Activity Report

Philadelphia Chapter - January 2012

The Philadelphia Chapter uses a Constant Contact mailing to advertize meetings and offer that meeting's upcoming agenda that lists all chapter activities and projects. 

TRIO Philadelphia as completed its 2011 project of publishing a book for children whose family is facing a transplant, an easy to read with illustrations for this true life double lung transplant member story that is available on-line and will be distributed free.  A media event is planned for when the copies are finally received, an event held at the Gift of Life Donor program offices for a book signing by the children who did the illustrations.  This has been an exciting project that took over a year to complete, much longer than anticipated, but so wonderful in seeing the final result.

Our chapter's major project for 2012 is the execution of the plan to host a transplant candidate's information event.  This event will be hosted at the OPO and recorded for future use as a template for other chapters to use if they wished to host a similar event and where they don't have local expert speakers on the various topics, they could use those recorded at this Philadelphia event.  Discussion expanded to wondering if it might be possible to put this up on the web so others could also benefit from the shared information.

After our January chapter meeting, members adjourned over to the nearby Transplant Family House where they participated in the OPO's cooking heroes program, baking four recipes of deserts for families who are staying at the house awaiting transplant.  This proved to be a fun and delicious event that all agreed we should repeat on a quarterly basis.

The chapter continues to host monthly speaker meetings where local medical professionals give presentations and host open discussion on topics of interest.  These sessions are recorded and submitted to the national TRIO Transplant Presentation Library to benefit TRIO membership across the country. Upcoming topics include:
  • Wednesday, January 25th: “Transplant Recovery Through Creative Endeavors”
  • Thursday, February 23rd 6:30: Mike Cohen, Institute for Safe Medical Practices, speaking on “Safe Medical Practices with Medications”
  • Tuesday, March 13th 5pm (note change from usual day and time): Dr. Lee Goldberg speaking on “Health Screenings for the Healthy Lifestyle Long After Transplant”
  • Thursday, April 26th: Talia Giordano, MSW, LSW from the Gift of Life Family House will talk on Care of the caregiver and proper nutrition, with a personal chef demonstrating recipes in the beautiful Family House kitchen (to be held at the Family House, 401 Callowhill Street, Philadelphia, PA 19123
    • Most Meetings are usually held the 4th Thursday evening of each month at the Gift of Life Offices.

    Our quarterly transplant movie night continues.  December's feature was the third of a Christmas trilogy, Christmas Hope, and was thoroughly enjoyed by the audience of donor families and recipients.  Earlier movies in that series were featured in December of the last two years.Coming up in March is "Final Sale" about black market organ transplant.

    Treasurer’s Report: Membership dues for 2011 should be mailed to Elizabeth with check payable to TRIO Philadelphia for $20.00. Address: Elizabeth Rubin, 407 N. Swarthmore Ave. Swarthmore, PA 19081.

    Sunshine Committee: Faith is mailing cards to TRIO Phila. members on the anniversary of another year of Life with a transplant.

    Facebook: Our Facebook page is a great way to keep up with the latest transplant news. To get to the TRIO Phila. page

    (type: Transplant Recipients International Organization). Our page has a picture of the TRIO pin.

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    Upcoming TRIO Phila. Events:

    Our next meeting will be held on Saturday, Feb 11 at the Gift of Life Offices from 10am to Noon.