TRIO Chapter Activity Report

San Francisco Bay Chapter - September 2011

The chapter cancelled its regular September meeting due to two important transplant events held two days later on Saturday, September 10.

The California Transplant Donor Network (CTDN) our local OPO, for which numerous TRIO members volunteer, held its first "Donate LIfe Walk" at Lake Elizabeth Park in Fremont. Over 400 showed up for the morning event. Some of us participated in "Team Ruben," in honor TRIO member Bob Moss's heart donor Ruben Bernal, Jr., a 21-year old killed in a drive-by shooting while he was at a barbecue. Several of Ruben's family were at the event.

Our double-lung recipient identical twins Ana Stenzel and Isa Stenzel Byrnes, who are both TRIO members, had their Bay Area debut of their film "The Power of Two," at San Francisco's historic Castro Theatre on Saturday, with matinee and evening performances drawing approximately 1,500 people. The film, directed by Marc Smolowitz, (Check out his other films.) had already been shown in New York City and Los Angeles during "DOCU Weeks," the Academy Awards documentary showcase screenings, leading up to the nominations. TRIO is listed as a community supporter on the film credits. The evening performance also included a concert by the musicians featured on the soundtrack, and the movie soundtrack is now available on CD. The movie covers the twins growing up with cystic fibrosis, Ana's subsequent two lung transplants, and Isa's one, all at Stanford Hospital, the meeting with their donor families and how they have been living with a new chance at life. Being half Japanese and fairly fluent in that language, the film also includes their trips to Japan for the Japanese Transplant Games as well as a look at the dismal state of organ donation in Japan. TRIO Japan, our largest chapter, is briefly featured. The Capitol Hill screening is on September 14, the general Washington, DC screening is September 15 at the Avalon Theatre. Check <www.ThePowerOfTwoMovie.com> for future showings throughout the country. This is a wonderful film, and I urge you to attend it as it makes its way around the country.

We held our annual picnic in August with 38 attending the event held in the East Bay city of Milpitas, a change from our usual Silicon Valley meeting setting. Our July meeting featured speaker Kathy Clark of the California Transplant Donor Network speaking about the quirks of the Northern California transplant list. Of particular note is the fact that Hispanics now make up a significant majority of those now on the kidney transplant list, the difficulty in attracting potential donors as easily in an extremely ethnically diverse population as opposed to a more homogenous one, and the makeup of the donor community by Bay Area county. Our next meeting (October 13) will be devoted to member support. Our November meeting (November 10) will feature a presentation by AlloMap (Also done at the spring TRIO Leadership Summit). Finally, we hold our annual Christmas/Holiday dinner party on December 8.

Sadly, our loss of members continued over the last few months. Martha Seeger, a long-time chapter member and kidney recipient passed away as did Melissa Boccia, who was awaiting a kidney transplant and Mary Margaret Morton, who was awaiting a liver transplant. We mourn losing them and miss them.

Steve Okonek, SF Bay TRIO President