Newspaper Story About Charity Team

The Spectrum newspaper ran a story in today's paper about the marathon fundraiser.

Friend Decides To Make Marathon A Run For The Money
By Patrice St. Germain

Running 26 miles in a marathon gives a sense of accomplishment to the runner, but Cory Reese decided to give his run on October 3 extra meaning by putting together a charity team.

Reese, Karrie and Shane Nielsen and others will be running to raise money for Reese's friend Paul Cardall, a recent heart-transplant recipient through Intermountain Donor Services.

Reese said originally he planned on running and raising money on his own and the plans just got bigger.

"Other people thought running for a cause was a good idea," he said. "It makes it more meaningful to have all your training and hard work benefit somebody else."

Reese said he got to know Cardall 10 years ago when he was trying to get into the music business. He became friends with Cardall who just had a CD, The Christmas Box, make it to the Billboard charts.

First a mentor, then a friend, Reese wanted to help Cardall who was waiting for a heart and received his transplant, after waiting a year, on Thursday.

Money raised by Reese and the other runners on the team, with the help of sales of a CD Reese, Cardall and other pianists put together, will go to help Cardall and Intermountain Donor Services.

Karrie Nielsen said she felt running on the charity team was a great idea and knows the importance of organ donation because one of her cousins donated a kidney to the cousin's sister.

Dixie Madsen, public education/public relations coordinator for Intermountain Donor Services said as of Friday morning, there were 103,497 people on the waiting list for organ donation. Last year, Madsen said, 27,900 people received transplants.

"The need there (for organ donation) is great and that is one of the points of fundraising - to increase education and get people thinking about it," Madsen said.

Madsen said there are many misconceptions about organ donation including costs to the donor or donors family, of which there is none, and people self-excluding themselves because they can not donate blood or have a condition that requires medication. Madsen said people think the doctors may not try as hard to save their life because they are an organ donor which is also not true.

"We never want something to happen. We are all about encouraging the use of seat belts and helmets but if something does happen, a lot of good can come from that decision to donate," she said.