{"id":224071,"date":"2026-06-20T20:53:08","date_gmt":"2026-06-20T20:53:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/224071\/"},"modified":"2026-06-20T20:53:08","modified_gmt":"2026-06-20T20:53:08","slug":"gift-of-lifes-team-philly-well-represented-at-2026-transplant-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/224071\/","title":{"rendered":"Gift of Life\u2019s Team Philly well-represented at 2026 Transplant Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

DENVER (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 The 2026 Transplant Games of America<\/a> are underway in Denver, Colorado. Gift of Life\u2019s Team Philly is once again one of the largest traveling squads, with more than 200 participants.<\/p>\n

The Transplant Games bring together organ recipients, living donors and donor families, whose loved ones gave the ultimate gift of life. They meet in a different city every two years for an Olympics-style competition.<\/p>\n

The ultimate goal of the Transplant Games is to raise awareness of the miracle of organ donation, but also of the more than 100,000 people across the country \u2014 and 5,000 in the Philadelphia region<\/a> \u2014 who are waiting for a life-saving transplant.<\/p>\n

KYW Newsradio\u2019s suburban bureau chief Jim Melwert \u2014 who donated his kidney to his aunt 20 years ago \u2014 is one of the 200 representing Team Philly<\/a>. He talked to participants about what this year\u2019s Transplant Games mean to them.<\/p>\n

Donor families return<\/p>\n

Pat Hieber\u2019s son, Chris, died in 1999. He saved five lives through organ donation.<\/p>\n

This is her 14th Transplant Games, and her 11th as Team Philly\u2019s donor family coordinator.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love helping new donor families get through this. It\u2019s an emotional experience, but it\u2019s a fun experience,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

While the competitions take center stage, with heart, lung, liver and kidney recipients taking part in everything from basketball to ballroom dancing, she said it\u2019s the donor families who are often the focus.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just amazing to watch the games through new eyes when new families come in,\u201d she said, \u201cbe there to comfort them when it\u2019s, you know, the hard parts; walking into the opening ceremony and stuff. But then also being able to see the joy on their face when they meet a part recipient and the person wants to give them a hug.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diane Milbourne is at her 11th Transplant Games. Her husband, Eddie, died 12 days after a car crash in 1997, donating both his kidneys and his liver.<\/p>\n

\u201cI keep coming back to the games because it\u2019s a giant love fest when you meet a new donor family or a new recipient or a living donor,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s goodness \u2014 it\u2019s just the goodness in people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dan Snowden, from Harrisburg, has been at every Transplant Games since 1994. He got a kidney transplant in 1992. He\u2019s never met his donor family, but he said participating in the games is a way to show appreciation to other donor families.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe games wouldn\u2019t be possible without the donor families, so I was actually happy to see a lot of focus on donor families and donor family events,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s where the whole process begins with them, with the families deciding to become organ donors.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patty Parisano\u2019s son, Tony Rivera, died four years ago. Patty said Tony made them well aware of his wishes if something ever happened: \u201cI actually told the transplant coordinator on the phone before she even introduced herself that \u2018I know what you’re going to ask me, and the answer is yes.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Tony\u2019s gifts not only saved three lives by donating his liver and kidneys, but his bone, skin and tissue contributed more than 200 grafts to people in need.<\/p>\n

The donor process is double-blind; donors and recipients must separately agree to contact each other, but because it\u2019s so inherently emotional, either side can wait years or never hear back.<\/p>\n

Patty\u2019s never met her son\u2019s recipients, and said she\u2019s teamed up with liver and kidney recipients here in Denver.<\/p>\n

\u201cHis words were \u2018The liver transplant saved my life, and the kidney transplant enhanced my life and made it better, made my life better\u2019, and I just, it brought tears to my eyes, because it’s so important.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sisters win silver in cornhole<\/p>\n

\"\"\/ Jim Melwert\/KYW Newsradio<\/p>\n

Ellen Smoll and her sister, Kelly Albright, took home the silver medal in cornhole. Both are kidney donors, but that wasn\u2019t their first encounter with organ donation.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy beautiful son, Evan, he passed away this Saturday, 14 years [ago], and we donated his organs and bone and tissue and corneas,\u201d said Smoll.<\/p>\n

Evan died in a motorcycle crash. Smoll said marking the anniversary of his death at the Transplant Games is extremely emotional.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re doing the butterfly release that day, and butterflies remind me of him, like right after he passed,\u201d she recalled. \u201cI was out mowing the lawn and the butterfly was flying right there, and I was like, that\u2019s him, because he used to mow my lawn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Five years after her son\u2019s death, Smoll decided to donate a kidney to a woman in Georgia whom she had never met.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then, of course, my lovely sister, she\u2019s always my sidekick, she said, \u2018You can do it, I can do it,\u2019 so she did it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team Philly struts their stuff <\/p>\n

\"\"\/ Jim Melwert\/KYW Newsradio<\/p>\n

Team Philly\u2019s husband and wife, Albert and Vicky Picatti, showed their stuff on the dance floor, saying their inspiration to try it out came in 2018 when they were at the Transplant Games in Salt Lake City and saw it was an offering.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis was his idea. Let’s do this. All right, I guess we’ll try. And so we’ve been taking dancing lessons since 2018, when we went to Salt Lake City, and it’s progressed, it’s gotten better,” Vicky said.<\/p>\n

Albert and Vicky each take home multiple medals in the competition.<\/p>\n

Vicky has had four cornea transplants; her sister donated her corneas after she died from cancer. Albert is a tissue recipient with two transplants in his shoulder after rotator cuff surgery failed.<\/p>\n

Albert said that while solid organ transplants are life-saving, \u201ctissue transplants, bone marrow, corneas, any of that kind of thing is certainly life-changing. I wouldn’t be able to dance if I hadn’t had the tissue replacement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lyrics for Life<\/p>\n

Jeffery Richards and Ryan Roby gained a following as the “Kidney Boyz,” winning back-to-back gold medals in Lyrics for Life in 2016 and 2018, the first two years the singing competition was held.<\/p>\n

\u201cTook a few years off, I had my kids, and it’s been busy with them, so it was kind of tough to get through the game,\u201d Roby said.<\/p>\n

Richards said they feel like this is a \u201creunion tour.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cLike, let’s get it back together, just kind of playing the hits and see where we go from here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Team Philly\u2019s Evett Hawks made her Lyrics for Life debut. She’s had two heart transplants, in 1996 when she was three, and the second in 2007.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel incredibly blessed, honestly. Not only getting one transplant, but two transplants in the same lifetime. I think it’s just really, really monumental every day. When I wake up to just do any small things or big things, I’m just very blessed and grateful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Racking up the medals<\/p>\n

On Saturday, the team\u2019s young transplant recipients took center stage as they won gold in basketball. The game ended in a tie, and both teams were awarded gold medals.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/ Jim Melwert\/KYW Newsradio<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, pretty much you try to dribble and hoop, and can I tell you how nervous I was when I first was going to do it, but after a while I got used to it, and then I won, because I have a gold medal,\u201d said 10-year-old Brandon Leathers. He had a kidney transplant when he was three. <\/p>\n

Brandon is at his second transplant games, and said it\u2019s really cool to be around other kids who have been through the things he\u2019s been through.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes I’m like, \u2018Oh, I just want to be like other kids,\u2019 but I’m like, \u2018Dang, there’s other kids who are just like me.\u2019 And plus, I told my dad, \u2018Wait a minute, I get to do stuff that’s funner in life than my other friends, because they don’t have a kidney transplant, so they don’t get to go here and stuff,\u2019 and I’m like, \u2018Wait, that’s a really good advantage for life.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Eight-year-old Amari Nichols, a liver recipient when he was 3, is having a blast at his first Transplant Games, especially on the basketball court:<\/p>\n

Amari: \u201cI hit two hoops.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim: \u201cYou made two?\u201d<\/p>\n

Amari: \u201cYep.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jim: \u201cNo way. That’s awesome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Amari: \u201cI already have a friend, and she is on the blue team.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the players were awarded their medals, Amari\u2019s mom, Ruth Robinson, said the games made him open up in a way she\u2019s never seen before.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe’s making friends, he’s enjoying himself, playing sports he’s never played, meeting amazing people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruth said meeting other parents whose children have gone through the same things as Amari is beautiful and emotional.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’ve cried being here, just knowing all these kids’ stories, and then he gets to meet other kids that have gone through the same things, the hospital stays, the surgeries, all the different things that transplant kids go through, and he’s made friends, I think lifelong friends here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DENVER (KYW Newsradio) \u2014 The 2026 Transplant Games of America are underway in Denver, Colorado. Gift of Life\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":224072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[1676,76760,50063,69,71,70],"class_list":["post-224071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-philadelphia","tag-colorado","tag-gift-of-life-donor-program","tag-organ-transplant","tag-philadelphia","tag-philadelphia-headlines","tag-philadelphia-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=224071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/224071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/224072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=224071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=224071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=224071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}