I arrived at the park about an hour before sunrise. Ordinarily only the sound of crickets would be heard, but not last Sunday morning. Instead, there was a flurry of activity at the park as Gift of Life staff and volunteers set up for the inaugural South Florida Walk for Life. It was going to be an exciting and emotional day. I could feel it in the air.

Turns out I was right! Not only were we joined by over 320 participants (double what we expected), but we also raised $67,000, which will be used to swab more than 1,000 new donors for the Gift of Life Registry.

But wait, there’s more! We kicked off the walk by introducing a heroic bone marrow donor to her grateful transplant recipient, and our 300+ participants were there to bear witness to this extraordinary meeting.

Jessica Offir was the donor. She was swabbed at a college recruitment drive we held at the AEPi fraternity at the University of Florida 7 years ago. Her match was Randi Igoe, a 50-year-old married mother of two daughters from New York who had been diagnosed with leukemia 18 months before the transplant last year.

When Jessica and Randi met for the first time, they hugged for what seemed like 5 minutes. Afterward, the two walked the course together. “My husband didn’t think I’d make the three miles,” Randi told me. “But Jessica and I just walked and talked the whole way. It was truly amazing.”

Jessica felt the same way. “It was completely overwhelming. I still get chills and tears in my eyes,” she said.

Jessica and Randi have already become fast friends. During and after the walk, they met each other’s families and they are now planning a get together later this month at Randi’s house in New York. “I feel like I have another daughter,” Randi said. “I haven’t stopped glowing.” Now, that’s the power of the Gift of Life!

The Walk4Life wouldn’t have happened were it not for the motivation and dogged perseverance of Gift of Life volunteer Wendy Schulman and her Walk Committee, who spent a year finding the right location, coming up with a theme, and reaching out to the business community to help sponsor the event.

Sandy Siller was our top fundraiser at the walk, bringing in over $2,500. On the podium I presented her a new iPad donated by sponsor WePay. She turned the audience and quipped: “Just think how much more I can get into people’s faces to raise money if I have this around!”

I also want to single out Ellen Schwartz, who raised $2,200 in support of her brother who is having a bone marrow transplant at the end of the month, and who was in good enough shape to participate in the entire walk. Ellen brought almost 50 people out to walk.

This was our first community-based walk-a-thon, and we hope to replicate it in other communities in 2011. If you’d like to get involved – particularly in Atlanta and New Jersey – please be in touch. We’ll give you all the support you need.

The Walk4Life capped a truly amazing few months for Gift of Life and for me personally, where I received the award of 2010’s Jewish Community Hero from the Jewish Federations of North America. I’ll write more about that in an upcoming post on the blog.

For now, let me once again express my heartfelt appreciation to everyone who made the Walk4Life such an extraordinary event. Your efforts will truly help to save lives. Kol HaKavod!

Media coverage

NBC affiliate News Channel 5, West Palm Beach, Reports Here

KSLA News, Shreveport, Reports Here

Read the story. South Florida Newspaper Sun-Sentinel, Reports Here