Mike and Amy keynote speakers at event!
Transplant recipient to join Donate Life Run/Walk
Lino Angel will accompany Huntington Beach donor family on Saturday at Cal State Fullerton
By BARBARA GIASONE
THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
FULLERTON Liver transplant recipient Lino Angel, 43, has been conserving all his energy to jog alongside his donor family in the seventh-annual Donate Life Run/Walk Family Festival on Saturday at Cal State Fullerton.
The fundraiser, benefitting the Donate Life California Organ and Tissue Donor Registry, is the largest event of its kind in the nation.
Angel will be among 235 friends and family on the festival's largest team, "Celebrating Scott Davis", when they take to the Titan field at 9 a.m. to remember the Huntington Beach teen who died last June in a skateboarding accident.
Davis' family donated the youth's heart, pancreas, two kidneys and a liver to five separate people.
"It was a miracle to get the liver, and I thank God every day that I can breathe," said Angel, a Downey resident and father of four who will accompany their parents and grandmother in the fundraiser.
Davis' father, Bill, said the family has met only one recipient – Angel – and that was by coincidence. Angel's son and Scott Davis wrestled in the same high school league.
"This fundraiser gives our family closure for Scott's accident," Davis said. "Someone got Scott's good heart."
More than 7,000 residents, business representatives and city officials will also participate.
Keynote speakers include Newport Beach Fire Dept. Capt. Chad Ponegalek, who will honor firefighter Kevin Pryor – a seven-organ donor in June 2008 when he died after fighting wildfires in northern California; Cal State Fullerton Professor Mike McGee and his living kidney donor, CSF alumna Amy Caterina; KIIS-FM's Manny on the Streets tissue recipient; and event founder Kathleen Hostert of Fullerton, who donated a kidney to her husband, Craig.
Celebrity guests include Kris Jenner, Khloe Kardashian and "American Idol's" Chikezie.
Forty-five vendors and health screenings will also be available to families until 12:30 p.m.
Information: Log on to khostert@onelegacy.org.
Contact the writer: 714-704-3762 or bgiasone@ocregister.com
