We talked with Jennifer DeMaroney, who is the Organ Donation Coordinator with the University of Vermont Medical Center, who explains how these walks started about a year ago, and the very first one, for organ donor Libby D’Avignon, from Middlebury, VT, has been viewed more than a million times on YouTube.
Jennifer was joined by Danielle Criss, a SUNY Plattsburgh student whose brother, Dalton, was an organ donor. Dalton, who was 18, was just days away from beginning his freshman year at SUNY Plattsburgh when he died in a car accident. Dalton’s heart, lungs, kidneys, corneas and tissue were all donated to recipients in need of transplants, and saved several lives. Danielle talked about how the Honor Walk that paid tribute to her brother’s incredible act of kindness was a comfort to the family grieving his sudden death.
Learn more about becoming an organ donor in New York and Vermont: donatelifenys.org donatelifevt.org. organdonor.gov.
Watch extended studio interview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6XtVtH18LA
Hear how Dalton’s friends and classmates made his Honor Walk especially touching for his family.
Listen to “The Honor Walk” segment on Reveal podcast in February on National Public Radio: https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/the-honor-walk/
The Honor Walk video from UVM Medical Center for Libby D’Avignon, an organ donor who died in August 2018: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F8j5oWqLHs0