By Kevin Cullen, Journal and Courier

When his liver was failing, East Tipp Middle School teacher Pete Sherry was so physically drained that he slept through his lunch break. After school, he'd go home and sleep some more.

In 1999, a transplant changed everything.

"I'm thankful every day when I wake up," a now-robust Sherry said Thursday at a sponsors' meeting for an upcoming organ donation awareness campaign. "I think of my donor family and I say a prayer for them."

The effort will be hosted in January by the Indiana Organ Procurement Organization Foundation, based in Indianapolis. Information about organ donation will be available through the media.

Kiosks will be set up in Lafayette and West Lafayette for people to make organ donation pledges electronically. And on Jan. 29, a benefit treasure hunt will be held at Cumberland Place Exhibition Center, with people digging through seven tons of sand to win vacations, game tickets and other prizes.

Volunteers at Purdue University hope to get 10 percent of the students to sign up as organ donors.

"The need (for donated organs) is very great, but the availability is less," said Dr. Donald Edelen, vice president for medical services, Greater Lafayette Health Services Inc. Thursday's meeting was held at the Kathryn Weil Center near Home Hospital.

About 80,000 Americans are waiting for organ transplants, including 683 in Indiana. Nationally, another person is added to the waiting list every 13 minutes, and every day, 17 Americans die waiting.

The Indiana Organ Procurement Organization is a not-for-profit agency that serves as a link between people wanting to make organ, tissue and eye donations, and those who need them. Body parts can be removed for transplantation only after a person has been declared "brain dead."

In the first 11 months of 2002, 406 lives were saved in Indiana because of organ transplants, according to Roger Utter, director of the IOPO Foundation.

If a person is mortally injured, and has not signed up as an organ donor, IOPO meets with family members to encourage them to donate organs and tissue. Follow-up programs provide needed emotional support.

Bob Vizza, a disc jockey on K105-WKOA radio, is actively involved in supporting IOPO and its upcoming campaign. He has received two kidney transplants, the last one from his sister.

The ordeal "taught me patience and the value of life," he said, and his sister "showed me the love of Jesus Christ. She laid down her life for me."

Dan Towery's 24-year-old daughter, Sarah, died after her vehicle was hit head-on by a drunken driver in 1999. Towery and his wife, Margie, who were in another car, watched in horror. Although Sarah had not signed an organ donation card, "the decision wasn't really very hard," Dan Towery said.

He and his wife had been on the donors' list for years, and they simply asked themselves, "What would Sarah want?" he said.

Heart valves, corneas and skin were removed for transplant.

"We felt a little peace, knowing we were going to help others. A little bit of Sarah would help others," Towery said.

A tearful Pat Almos, of Lafayette, spoke of her gratitude toward the stranger who provided her son, Steven, with a new kidney about six months ago. He had waited for one for more than two years.

At 12, Steven had to go on dialysis treatment three times a day. He took medications four times daily and also received daily shots.

Before the transplant, Almos said, she faced the prospect of seeing her son "get sicker and sicker. I was afraid he would be too weak to receive (a transplant)."

"Now his appetite is back and he has more energy than I do," she said. "Thank you for giving my son back. I hope another mom like myself won't have to ask, 'Why is the wait so long?' "

Sherry feels so good now that he is postponing his retirement. He's been teaching at East Tipp for 35 years and plans to continue for at least four more.

He wrote a letter of thanks to the family that provided the liver that keeps him alive today.

One family's tragedy, he said, "gave the gift of life to someone they didn't know."

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