Home Cook Heroes
Thank you to the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc.-Omega Mu Omega Chapter for volunteering at the House on Martin Luther King Day for the sorority’s “We Are One” AKA Day of Service.
The group stocked the pantry with snacks and household essentials, organized and stored volunteer center donations, disposed of expired items, and prepared check-in packets and volunteer information bags!
Volunteers included living kidney donor Sue Levy Giles and her daughter Alexandria, who received a kidney transplant through a paired donor exchange involving her mom. Sue shared that the group “thoroughly enjoyed the meaningful projects we were given and hope that our efforts will contribute, even in a small way, to supporting the invaluable work your organization does for organ transplant recipients and their families.”
Major Milestone Alert!
Today, John and his group are celebrating their 100th visit of coming to cook in our kitchen! This is an amazing accomplishment and a true testament to the generosity and dedication of John and his group in serving transplant families at the House.
John Schmid and his volunteer group, “Friends of Bear”, are familiar faces here at the House. John, affectionately nicknamed, “Bear”, has been coming to cook in our kitchen since 2018. He started involving his family and friends, and has since become a prolific Home Cook Hero All-Star.
Thank you to the entire Friends of Bear community for your unwavering support of our mission!
We are excited to announce that the Transplant Information Center (TIC) Department at Gift of Life Donor Program has become the first department to earn the title of Home Cook Hero All-Star! This achievement recognizes TIC employees for volunteering their time to cook a meal for our families 12 times over the past year, earning their own All-Star plate in our kitchen!
A big thank you to the TIC Department for your dedication to serving transplant families at the House! Want to follow in their footsteps for 2025? Click here to schedule your Home Cook Hero dates now:
We’d like to give a special shout out to our friends at Organ Recovery Systems, who not only cooked a meal for our families tonight but also recently supported our Home Cook Heroes Program with a generous pledge of $100,000! Organ Recovery Systems has been a partner in caring for transplant families at the House since 2011, and we could not be more grateful for their support of our mission.
“Supporting Gift of Life Howie’s House is a true privilege – their unwavering dedication to caring for transplant patients and their families is nothing short of inspiring, and Organ Recovery Systems is honored to play a small part in their incredible mission. Our team especially loves participating in the Home Cook Heroes Program, where we can offer comfort through meals and contribute to the sense of community and care that Howie’s House provides”, says Kayla Andalina, ORS team member.
Thank you to Organ Recovery Systems for more than 13 years of steadfast support for transplant families at the House!
Caregiver Lifeline Spotlight
Transplant patients can live for many decades after transplantation, and with that remarkable success and progress comes a need for personalized and multidisciplinary medicine that includes specialized dermatology care.
Organ transplant recipients have an increased risk of skin cancer because immunosuppressive medications that prevent transplanted organs from being rejected by the body also lower the body’s natural defenses against skin cancer. The most common type of skin cancer in transplant patients is squamous cell carcinoma. The good news is that if detected early, with good care these cancers can be managed and very often cured.
Transplant Dermatologists have a simple goal – no one should die of skin cancer after a second chance at life through organ donation.
How high is the risk of skin cancer in transplant patients?
One in five people without a transplant will develop skin cancer by the age of 70. That story is dramatically different for transplant patients. Transplant patients are 65 times more likely to get squamous cell carcinoma than people without a transplant. They are 10 times more likely to get basal cell carcinoma, the least serious type of skin cancer. And transplant patients are 3 to 4 times more likely to develop melanoma, a potentially more serious type of skin cancer.
Skin cancers in transplant patients can grow quickly and have an increased risk of spreading. That’s why having a good relationship with a dermatologist who specializes in transplant dermatology can be game changing. Prompt and expert dermatologic care, which often includes a specialized type of surgery called Mohs surgery for certain skin cancers, is crucial for transplant patients.
What can transplant patients do about the increased risk of skin cancer?
The most important thing to do to lower the chance of skin cancer is sun protection – sunscreen, sun protective clothing, hats and sunglasses. Go ahead and make that hat fashion statement. As with many cancers, early detection of skin cancer is an important factor for preventing serious complications and death. Fortunately, most skin cancers can be easily treated in outpatient settings. The most common way to treat skin cancers in sensitive areas like the face is with Mohs Surgery. Mohs offers the highest cure rate and is the most precise way to treat skin cancer with the best cosmetic outcomes after surgery.
Good transplant dermatology care also offers treatments and medications to help lower the chance of developing skin cancer in the first place.
How often should you see a board-certified transplant dermatologist after an organ transplant?
What time and experience have proven is that routine dermatology care is an essential part of organ transplant care. Every transplant patient should be seen by a board-certified dermatologist around the time of transplantation, not because skin cancer is looming, but to start learning about skin cancer and what to look for.
After that, the frequency of dermatology visits will be based on each person’s unique situation. For some, visits are needed every few months. Fortunately most transplant patients do very well with visits to the dermatologist every 6 to 12 months.
If you are a transplant patient, talk to your transplant coordinators and physicians about finding a dermatologist who has an interest in transplant dermatology. You can also look for a transplant dermatologist through the International Immunosuppression & Transplant Skin Cancer Collaborative’s “Find a Transplant Dermatologist” tool.
Learn More About Transplant Dermatology
To learn more please watch Dr. Mark’s webinar presented through the Caregiver Lifeline Program
Since we opened our doors, Organ Recovery Systems (ORS) has been a proud supporter of the Howie’s House and has helped us care for transplant families in many ways!
“Supporting the transplant community is something I personally take to heart, and Gift of Life Howie’s House goes above and beyond by offering a comfortable and intimate residence for transplant patients and their families,” says Matthew Copithorne, Vice President, Sales and Marketing at ORS.
In 2011, ORS made a generous financial commitment to our mission by underwriting our kitchen – a capital campaign gift that helped us welcome transplant families home. Since then, many of their staff members have volunteered in our Home Cook Heroes Program to prepare home-cooked meals for our guests. ORS also generously supports our annual Kidney Open Golf Outing, which raises funds for our Adopt-A-Family Program.
More recently, they found another way to help by sending a generous donation of hand sanitizer!
“Partnering with Gift of Life Howie’s House has been so rewarding to us, and years later our team still counts down the days until we can visit with and cook for recipients and their families,” says Kayla Andalina, Marketing Manager.
ORS was founded on a passion to help improve patient outcomes in transplantation and honor the gift of life. Their support of the Howie’s House helps provide transplant patients and their family members with a place to call home while far from their own. We are so thankful for their partnership and look forward to serving transplant families with them in the future!
The annual Gift of Life Volunteer Recognition Ceremony, a day where we recognize the compassion, dedication, and hard work our volunteers bring to the Gift of Life community, took place on June 9th.
The Howie’s House had the opportunity to present four awards—the Home Cook Heroes Award, the Heartman Award, the Fundraising Ambassador Award, and the Guest Services Award. We are so incredibly proud and humbled by all of our volunteers and couldn’t have been happier to honor them in this special way.
We presented our Home Cook Heroes Award to New Vision Pioneers, who, led by Jody, have been volunteering with us since the spring of 2015. Since then, they have come in 36 times to date and have served nearly 2,000 meals to families who came a long way to receive treatment in Philadelphia.
The Heartman Award was given to Janice Schwartz Donahue. Janice has been volunteering with Gift of Life for over 20 years, first getting involved with her daughter, Jessica, who was a heart transplant recipient. Sadly, Jessica passed away, but Janice continues to carry on her legacy by coordinating Jessie’s Day with her other daughter, Laura, every year to give the gift of education to organ transplant recipients who are looking to attend college.
Janice is also a weekly volunteer at the Howie’s House. Every Wednesday, you’ll find her in the kitchen warmly welcoming and supporting the Home Cook Heroes volunteer groups, giving tours, setting up and cleaning up, or doing whatever is needed to make sure the kitchen operations are running smoothly.
She has become part of the Howie’s House “family” and we just love having her with us each week. To date, Janice has contributed over 900 hours of her time to supporting the Howie’s House!
This year, the 2018 Fundraising Ambassador Award, which recognizes a volunteer, group, or organization that has demonstrated exceptional leadership in coordinating, motivating, and successfully completing fundraising efforts for Gift of Life Howie’s House, was given to the Penkala Family.
In an effort to honor his son Paulie and raise awareness about organ and tissue donation, Paul Penkala, along with family and friends, hosts an annual golf tournament and graciously donates all of the money raised to Gift of Life Howie’s House.
In 2011, the family pledged $25,000 to underwrite the Howie’s House resident laundry room in their son’s name, because, as Paul put it, “Paulie was always particular about ironing his clothing.”
Even though they fulfilled this pledge a few years ago, the Penkalas continue to host their outing to support our Adopt-A-Family Program.
The Penkalas also volunteer in the House as Home Cook Heroes, preparing and serving home-cooked meals to our guests, and in the community by participating in speaking engagements, sharing their donation story, and spreading awareness for organ and tissue donation.
The Penkala family has accomplished so much and we are so grateful for all you’ve done for the Howie’s House, our transplant families, and the transplant community.
Lastly, our Guest Service Award was given to Ginneh Earle. Ginneh began volunteering at the Howie’s House in 2014 and has generously contributed over 400 hours of her time since joining our team.
Anyone who has been at the Howie’s House on a night where Ginneh is helping knows that they are instantly in good hands, as she makes sure that our Home Cook Heroes groups have everything they need, and always doing so with a welcoming smile. She often will stay at the Howie’s House until after 9pm, making sure several times that there is really nothing else she can do to help!
In addition to being a friendly presence at the Howie’s House on a weekly basis, Ginneh also has volunteered at the Dash and President’s Reception.
Ginneh does not have a direct connection to transplantation, but says that she just wants to help, and we can’t thank her enough for that. Her leadership, kindness, and commitment to support and comfort transplant patients, families, caregivers, and fellow volunteers is truly admirable.
Our volunteers play such an important role at the Howie’s House and we are so grateful for their help—thank you so much!
The ladies of Rutgers Gang have kept their college friendships especially strong. They began volunteering as Home Cook Heroes when the Howie’s House opened in 2011, and have continued their commitment to serving transplant families in honor of a member whose relative passed after while waiting for a multi-organ transplant and another whose daughter received two kidney transplants.
At least once a month, these women come together not only to catch up, but to prepare and serve a warm meal for our guests. “Some people don’t realize the stress on caretakers is very hard,” Barbara, one of the members, says. “It’s good to sit down, relax, and enjoy something other than a boxed meal.”
For one of their first meals, they prepared a big lasagna dinner. However, when they found out most other Home Cook Heroes groups were serving Italian-style meals, they started to change things up. Since then, they’ve served breakfast for dinner, Mexican meals, and have even barbequed outside.
“We’ve got our routine down to a science,” Barbara says.
After they finish cooking, the ladies will often go out to dinner themselves, bringing their husbands and boyfriends along with them.
“It’s fun to get together with my friends,” Barbara says. “It’s also fun to do something for others. We all love cooking and it’s something we can all do. The Howie’s House is so life-changing. It feels like home.”
We’re so grateful these women have found a home here at the Howie’s House and that by volunteering with us, they’re honoring important people in their lives.
We’ll see you next time, Rutgers Gang!
“My experience at Gift of Life Howie’s House is inexpressible.
I spent 42 nights there while my husband was in the hospital. The Gift of Life Howie’s House is a home. When visiting my husband daily at the hospital, I would find myself telling him what time I would be going “home” that day.
When I did arrive home, I was always greeted by the smiling faces of the dedicated staff and the aromas of a home cooked meal. The rides to and from the House were another gift. The volunteers, many of them transplant recipients, were a source of support because they knew exactly what I was experiencing. Of course, there was also a tremendous connection that developed among the guests.
Although everyone had a different story, and we were all on different steps of the journey, it was such a comfort to share my day with people who were walking the same walk as I was.”
–Judy, past family House Guest
For several years now, my family and friends have come together at Gift of Life Howie’s House to cook and serve guests a special, home-cooked meal …
We choose to be Home Cook Heroes because we know what these families are going through. And we do it because we want to honor our own hero, our son Gavin, on his birthday.
Gavin had a febrile seizure that led to cardiac arrest in April of 2013. He was 5 1/2 years old. His kidneys were the only viable organs able to be donated — and both of them went to a man in his 40s.
Helping others is, to me, one of the best ways to honor Gavin. – Kate Leong
It meant so much to us to donate Gavin’s kidneys at the end of his life, and we feel joy over and over as we help families staying at the Howie’s House. They come from all over the world, and the Howie’s House serves as their “home away from home” — and so much more.
-Kate Leong
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