MAT-SU — If you were driving on the Parks Highway Friday morning, you may have noticed a group of teenagers running down the pedestrian path carrying a torch.

No, they weren’t wayward youth looking for wanton destruction and vandalism. They were Wasilla High School students running the first leg of a two-year run to bring attention to the need for organ donations.

Wasilla was the start of the 8,000-mile run to Argentina that will go through 257 cities for the non-profit SOS The Americas Foundation. The organization is dedicated to raising organ and tissue donation awareness in Canada, the United States and South America.

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The run to Argentina is the seventh in the Step By Step program started by SOS The Americas. Step By Step’s mission is “to empower student participation. Their role is to promote the importance of organ and tissue donations throughout the world by inspiring the public, media and the three levels of government,” according to the SOS website.

The Alaska portion of the journey started at Wasilla’s Curtis D. Menard Memorial Sports Center and then continued on to Anchorage.

“These Wasilla kids are the first of thousands to run, and they have been so passionate and excited about it. We are just trying to get people to be organ donors,” said organizer George Marcello.

SOS The Americas believes that for waiting organ recipients the situation is dire, but fixable.

Marcello hopes this run will encourage Alaskans to donate their organs.

“There are over 100,000 people waiting for transplants right now, and one person donating can save up to eight lives,” he said.

James Hastings, recreation and cultural service manager for Wasilla, shared one story demonstrating that point.

“Spc. Max Cavanaugh served in over 300 combat missions in Iraq before returning to Anchorage, where he was killed in a moose accident,” Hastings said. “His donated organs help five people live.”

Hastings encourages everyone to become organ donors, and believes that with the turnout at Friday’s event, more people will give longer lives for others.

“We had several Wasilla High School students, members of the community and the police chief came out and spoke. As well as the mayor and governor writing letters of recommendation and encouragement,” he said.

“I am pleased with the turnout so far. It has been good, we just need to keep it up,” Marcello said. 

Anyone interested in becoming a donor can sign the back of their driver’s license or visit Life Alaska Donor at www.lifealaska.org.

Contact Lanier Hutcheson at lanier.hutcheson@frontiersman.com or 352-2265.