Fishguy Foundation raises flag at Penn Township for Donate Life Month
PENN TWP — Few people recognize the significance of “donating life” more than Bill and Jackie Hutz, the co-founders of the Team Fishguy Transplant Foundation.
By 2014, Bill Hutz of Penn Township — known as the “Fishguy” for his knowledge of fish — was undergoing kidney dialysis and was forced to close his aquarium business due to failing health. Hutz needed a kidney transplant to survive, and was put on the donation list.
“What we had hoped would be a short-lived wait was turning into a long time,” said Bill’s wife, Jackie. “One person after another was signed up to register and donate, but they never crossed the finish line to receive the approval of the transplant team.”
Bill’s survival hung in the balance until May 2018, when the Hutzes received help from an unlikely savior — Chattanooga native Oma Palmer, the sister of Jackie’s ex-husband, who came through by offering to donate a kidney.
“Almost six years later, his body has made that new kidney feel right at home,” Jackie said. “None of those other potential donors could have given him this exact and perfect gift.”
This led Bill and Jackie to create the Team Fishguy Transplant Foundation in March 2019, which is dedicated to supporting transplant patients and donors and raising awareness for organ donation.
On Tuesday evening, April 9, Bill, Jackie and other members of the foundation raised a special Donate Life flag at the Penn Township municipal building on Airport Road. Afterward, Jackie shared the story of her family and the foundation with the township’s supervisors.
“We are forever grateful, thankful and amazed at the story God has written for our transplant life,” Jackie said. “Organ donation truly saves lives. We are living proof.”
Butler County Commissioner Leslie Osche also attended the flag-raising event. Before that night’s township supervisors meeting, Osche proclaimed April as National Donate Life Month in Butler County.
Osche had a special reason to be there, as her family has personal experience with donating life — specifically, lifesaving organs. Her sister died 25 years ago at the age of 52 from a “massive stroke,” but in dying, she saved the lives of many others by donating her organs.
“It was rewarding to her daughter and my parents, who at the time were both still living,” Osche said. “To be able to get the letters from the families who received the kidney or the heart or the lung was pretty amazing.”
Later this month, to celebrate National Donate Life Month, Jackie will speak on behalf of the Team Fishguy Transplant Foundation at the South Butler Community Library in Saxonburg, as well as some local hospitals. The foundation also will host an American Red Cross blood drive at the Penn Township municipal building.
