On Easter Sunday in 1991, a young family in Texas drove home from dinner.
They crossed a bridge with a truck coming toward them from the other direction. The head-on collision moments later snapped the husband's neck. The mother, a nurse, struggled to give first aid to her 2-year-old son, who later died from brain swelling.
Although the accident took two people, it also saved at least one when the mother donated her son's organs.
Less than a week later -- and after a six-and-a-half- hour surgery -- the little boy's liver began a new life in the body of a little girl from Delaware, who had spent four of her first 13 months of life eatingthrough a tube.
That was the first time in Gabe Archangelo's life an organ transplant saved the life of a loved one. It would not be the last.
At the time Archangelo's daughter, Gabrielle, received the liver, organ transplants were still rare, and the idea of listing "organ donor" on a driver's license was relatively new.
Archangelo and his family have spent much of their lives since then promoting policies and raising awareness to increase the rate of organ donation in Delaware -- a dedication that has earned him a place on The News Journal's list of 50 Who Matter, which shines a light on Delawareans who work out of the spotlight to improve the lives of others.
The Archangelos eventually learned the identity of the donor mother -- Tamara Mitchell, of San Angelo, Texas. They also found out her motivation for offering the organs of her son, Aaron.
"She didn't want another mother to feel the pain she did," Archangelo said. "You hear a thing like that, and you want to give back."
Giving back
Feeling indebted to the donor who saved Gabrielle's life, Archangelo and his wife, Eve, started volunteering with the Gift of Life, a Philadelphia-based nonprofit that connects donors with recipients and helps cover the cost of procuring organs offered for donation.
"In the beginning, it was just attending meetings and then Gift of Life said, 'Well, how about starting a Delaware group?' " Archangelo said.
He started leading the Delaware group around 2005. By then, Archangelo felt even more committed to the cause of organ donation. Eve, who had diabetes since childhood, received a kidney from a cousin in 1997 and then a pancreas from an anonymous donor.
In 1998, the Archangelos were guests when Gov. Tom Carper signed a bill requiring the state Department of Motor Vehicles to ask drivers if they want to be identified as organ donors on their licenses. And Gabrielle, a healthy young girl thanks to someone else's liver living inside of her, appeared on fliers and posters promoting organ donation.
The Archangelos embraced their roles as messengers for the cause, said John Green, director of community relations for Gift of Life.
"I can go out and speak to a group, and I could probably be pretty effective. It's my job," he said. "But when you have someone like Gabe whose family has been touched by organ donation not just once but three times, it really inspires and motivates people."
The northern Delaware Gift of Life group has about 15 active members, and the more recently formed southern Delaware group has about 10 active members.
"Gabe is one of our greatest volunteers. He's tremendously active. He's always thinking of ways to get our message out to the public," said Todd Franzen, community education coordinator for Gift of Life. "I don't know how many weekends he's given up to help us. I always question where he gets his energy."
Archangelo and his fellow volunteers can be seen at community events, festivals and schools throughout the state handing out information explaining the need for more organ donors and encouraging people to register.
Their efforts appear to have paid off already, according to state statistics compiled by Gift of Life. Among Delawareans holding driver's licenses or state IDs, the percentage of people listed as organ donors has increased every year since 2006 -- from 38.86 percent to 43.57 percent at the beginning of this year.
Squashing myths
The group works to dispel surprisingly common myths about organ donation. Some believe that being an organ donor will result in them getting substandard medical care in an emergency or that taking the organs will noticeably disfigure the body of the donor. Neither of those is true, Franzen said, and those rumors are starting to subside because of people like Archangelo.
"We're seeing a definite positive trend upwards in the number of people registering to be organ donors," he said.
Mostly, Archangelo gives living proof that organ donation saves lives by pointing to his daughter and wife. Gabrielle, now 21, will be a senior nursing major at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh this fall.
And it all traces back to a decision a mother made in the last moments of her son's life.
The two families still correspond, and the Archangelos even attended the wedding of Mitchell's daughter, who survived the accident.
"I felt compelled to write you, to thank you," Mitchell wrote in a letter nearly 20 years ago. "It was you who gave me a great gift. At a time when I felt my world collapsing, you allowed me to see a glimpse of silver-lining."
In 1998, the Archangelos were guests when Gov. Tom Carper signed a bill requiring the state Department of Motor Vehicles to ask drivers if they want to be identified as organ donors on their licenses. And Gabrielle, a healthy young girl thanks to someone else's liver living inside of her, appeared on fliers and posters promoting organ donation.
The Archangelos embraced their roles as messengers for the cause, said John Green, director of community relations for Gift of Life.
"I can go out and speak to a group, and I could probably be pretty effective. It's my job," he said. "But when you have someone like Gabe whose family has been touched by organ donation not just once but three times, it really inspires and motivates people."
The northern Delaware Gift of Life group has about 15 active members, and the more recently formed southern Delaware group has about 10 active members.
"Gabe is one of our greatest volunteers. He's tremendously active. He's always thinking of ways to get our message out to the public," said Todd Franzen, community education coordinator for Gift of Life. "I don't know how many weekends he's given up to help us. I always question where he gets his energy."
Archangelo and his fellow volunteers can be seen at community events, festivals and schools throughout the state handing out information explaining the need for more organ donors and encouraging people to register.
Their efforts appear to have paid off already, according to state statistics compiled by Gift of Life. Among Delawareans holding driver's licenses or state IDs, the percentage of people listed as organ donors has increased every year since 2006 -- from 38.86 percent to 43.57 percent at the beginning of this year.
Squashing myths
The group works to dispel surprisingly common myths about organ donation. Some believe that being an organ donor will result in them getting substandard medical care in an emergency or that taking the organs will noticeably disfigure the body of the donor. Neither of those is true, Franzen said, and those rumors are starting to subside because of people like Archangelo.
"We're seeing a definite positive trend upwards in the number of people registering to be organ donors," he said.
Mostly, Archangelo gives living proof that organ donation saves lives by pointing to his daughter and wife. Gabrielle, now 21, will be a senior nursing major at Duquesne University in Pittsburgh this fall.
And it all traces back to a decision a mother made in the last moments of her son's life.
The two families still correspond, and the Archangelos even attended the wedding of Mitchell's daughter, who survived the accident.
"I felt compelled to write you, to thank you," Mitchell wrote in a letter nearly 20 years ago. "It was you who gave me a great gift. At a time when I felt my world collapsing, you allowed me to see a glimpse of silver-lining."
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