Donate Life Night nets $7,255 behind Gambell’s effort

            When Maci Gambell wasn’t filling up the box scores on the basketball court in December, the Pekin junior was providing another kind of assist through a community service project she originally developed for a 4-H project.

            “It started over this summer, when I wanted to do the project over organ donation,” Gambell said. “My mom and I decided that having two people in our high school that have had organ transplants, and that there’s not awareness of organ donation, that would be a good project to bring to the school.”

            The Pekin Lady Panthers Basketball Team has engaged in the Iowa Hall of Pride Scrimmage event for several years in a row, which allows them to play an extra scrimmage game against Fairfield. In order to participate, the team must engage in a service project that is approved by the Iowa High School Athletic Association. Spurred by her schoolmates and her mother, Christy, Gambell recommended the team host “Donate Life Night” for their December 9 game against Wapello.

            The Gambells began working on this event as early as the summer with Maci creating a Facebook page-Donate Life Night-Pekin Girls Basketball-to inform community members of the event and to share facts of organ donation. As the social media page gained momentum, The Gambells, along with members of the girl’s basketball team and their families, started selling t-shirts as the first part of their fundraiser. On Giving Tuesday-the Tuesday following Cyber Monday-donations made through the Facebook page were matched by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, with all fees waived.

            If that weren’t enough, the team and their families also created gift baskets for a silent auction for Donate Life Night. Some of the 60 baskets and 15 raffle items auctioned off included Iowa basketball and St. Louis Cardinals baseball tickets, autographed sports gear, and Disney World tickets. According to Christy, some of these items had to be requested months in advance in order to have them in time for the game. Maci and seniors Kaylee Linder, Aspen Clark and Shea Dahlstrom took part in an interview on Ottumwa Radio to advertise Donate Life Night on the air on November 14, which replayed again the week of the event.

            The big day came and the Pekin gym had a good crowd to watch as the Lady Panthers defeated the Wapello Indians 52-43. The Chris Klug Foundation from Aspen, CO provided green socks for the players and promotional items for the game. A total of 217 t-shirts were sold before and during the game, plus $4,482 was raised through the silent auction at the game.

            After combining all the generated donations and sales together, the team has raised $7,255 for the Iowa Donor Network, the only organization of its kind in the state. A check was presented to a representative from the Iowa Donor Network on December 19.

            “It’s cool that it started as a small 4-H project and it escalated into this large event like this,” Maci said. “It’s even better that there was so much support from the community to raise money for organ donation.”

            Maci will be presenting her 4-H project again this month for her FCCLA Star Project and hopes to make it to the state and national levels with her presentation that has already made a difference in a community where two of its own have had organ transplants.

            “Much credit should go to Maci for all her time she put in,” Davis Eidahl, Maci’s basketball coach said. “She is a very busy girl with all her activities, yet she found the time to make this project a success. It opened up the eyes of many people of how organ donations can save lives.”

            Eidahl also credits Christy for giving a lot of her time to help the team put together this event. Christy took care of many of the ticket purchases for the baskets and also helped push Maci to take this project to the next level.

            “There are 600 people in Iowa on the waiting list for an organ transplant,” Christy Gambell said. “While not everyone can be an organ donor, the issue is there are so many misconceptions about organ donating. The elderly think they have nothing to give, while families of the deceased don’t understand their loved one’s organs can be of use, but only under a time crunch. As a parent, I think it is so important to teach our kids about service projects.  This project was about teaching our kids the importance of giving back to others without anything in return. We weren't raising money for new equipment or uniforms or even a trip. We were raising awareness about the importance of helping others.”

            This is the fourth year that Pekin High School has been involved with the Iowa Hall of Pride Scrimmage. In their first two years, the girl’s basketball team has collected donations for the Pekin Ministerial Association. Last year, the team visited residents at Deer Ridge Assisted Living in Sigourney.

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