NJ Sharing Network President Opens New Meditation Garden

Steve Adubato goes on-location to the NJ Sharing Network’s Landscape of Life Meditation Garden to speak with Joe Roth, President and CEO of the NJ Sharing Network to discuss the importance of organ and tissue donation.

9/29/16 #1898

Excerpt:

"Steve Adubato here with our good friend Joe Roth, who is the President and CEO of New Jersey Sharing Network. We are here, Joe, for a special event, this is a dedication, you can see outside, we'll be taking video of this, this is the Landscape of Life Meditation Garden, long time coming. Describe what it is, and why it matters so much. Well, this is an effort of the staff of the Sharing Network through their employee giving fund to our New Jersey Sharing Network Foundation. And over time we had... they worked together as a committee to find a way to use this money for the purpose of honoring and recognizing donor families, recipients, and staff, and they came up with the idea of this meditation garden. Which is just the most wonderful idea, because many times we have families, donor families, or recipients who come here and they visit the office and they want a quiet area to sit and reflect, and this is just the place that it's gonna do. It has running water, it has beautiful flowers and benches to sit on, and so forth, and we think it's gonna be an amazing addition to this great building that we have already. Let's talk about this a little bit. The place is filling up. There are so many people that are coming to... to be a part of this dedication. The Sharing Network is how many years, Joe? 29. We'll be 30 next year. And we've been working with the Sharing Network in terms of public outreach, public awareness about organ and tissue donation. This day means what for this organization? Well it's another, you know, part of our growth of this organization, and our recognition of those that have made us successful, the donor families who've given the ultimate gift of life. It also recognizes those people who are waiting to give them hope for getting a transplant, and also recognizes those who died while waiting, unfortunately, and couldn't get a transplant. And that's where our job still has fallen short is saving lives of people on the waiting list. Why do you say "fallen short" Joe? Well there are still people dying while waiting for an organ, and our job is to try and eliminate all the deaths on the waiting list, and we hope... we're making progress on that as you may know. Remember last year was one of our best years in the history, we had a 37% increase in the number of transplanted organs. In 29 years we never had done that much. So we're making progress, but there are still people who just aren't getting the organ in time, and they do pass away before that happens..."