Dundee Rotary speaker to discuss organ donation

Submitted by Dundee Township Rotary

Judy Meikle was the recipient of a miracle. Her story about the gift of a heart and the importance of organ donations will be told at the Dundee Township Rotary Club meeting at noon Tuesday, Sept. 18, at Emmett’s Ale House, 128 Main St. in West Dundee.

A miracle is the only word, Meikle, 56, can use to describe the gift of a heart, transplanted from an Army Ranger who died after fighting to save his comrades in Afghanistan.

“He saved people when he was wounded and saved even more people when he died; how many people can say that?” Meikle said while sitting in the Winnetka home where she grew up.

Since receiving the heart of Cpl. Benjamin Kopp in July 2009, Meikle has made it her mission to spread the word about the importance of organ donation.

“It’s what Ben would have wanted,” Meikle believes, “and is the least I can do to carry on his spirit.

“If just one person decides to be an organ donor, they’ll be honoring Ben,” Meikle added.

She wears a metal bracelet bearing Kopp’s name, a gift from another soldier, and a pink heart around her neck. Four hundred miles away in Minneapolis, Minn., an identical heart rests on a chain around the neck of Jill Stephenson, Kopp’s mother.

For details, call Jim Bolz at (847) 428-6107.