Woman STEPS up for brother
Jenny Guzdek is stepping up her efforts to promote organ donations.
Guzdek, 29, of Racine, is organizing the STEPS for Life Walk June 6 at the Kenosha YMCA. The walk is a fundraiser for the National Kidney Foundation of Wisconsin to benefit Team Wisconsin transplant recipients, living donors and donor family members attending the 2010 NKF U.S. Transplant Games in July in Madison.
In 2008 and 2009, Guzdek put together Dots for Life bowling fundraisers in Racine to benefit the team.
But as she and other volunteers were packing up after the October 2009 bowl-athon, Guzdek realized she might better achieve her goal of spreading the organ-donation gospel farther and wider by changing the format to a charity walk.
Hence, STEPS — Sharing the Transplant Experience; Proving the Success — was born.
“I’m very enthusiastic. The walk, for me, provides a greater opportunity for more people to get involved,” she said. “You can have an unlimited number of walkers.”
Modest goals
Because this will be a first-time event, Guzdek’s fundraising goals is modest, and she is more focused on the educational aspect and raising awareness locally.
“It would be great for us to get 200 (walkers) at first. The first bowling benefit (in 2008) raised $3,000. It would be great to match or exceed that,” said Guzdek.
Guzdek, a Kenosha native, works two part-time jobs — one as the paid volunteer assistant for Blood Center of Wisconsin/Wisconsin Donor Network, the other as an AM Community Credit Union teller at the Racine branch.
STEPS she does on her own, volunteering her time and efforts with help from her mother, Gina Giannini, of Kenosha.
Motivated by brother
Supporting organ donation became Jenny’s passion in 1996, when her elder brother, Joe, went on the waiting list for a kidney transplant.
At the time, Jenny was 16, taking driver’s education in high school. The topic turned to organ donation and placing a donor dot on driver’s licenses.
“I realized, ‘Wow, my brother is one of the people waiting,’” she said.
At the time, she was too young and didn’t know whether she would be a compatible match for Joe, who received the needed kidney the next year and subsequently began participating in the Transplant Games and eventually met and befriended the donor family.
Jenny wants others to share the experience and celebrate what donation truly means for donors, donor families and recipients, which is why the fundraising side of STEPS is secondary for now.
“It’s never about the money for me. It’s more about promoting (organ) donation,” she said.
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