Teachers at Broad Street Elementary School were treated to pizza and cupcakes for lunch Tuesday, May 5, as a show of gratitude for their hard work during teacher appreciation week.

When teacher Alyce Acre entered the break room, she was greeted with a jubilant “surprise” from her fellow educators, as well as her aunt and uncle, Cathi and Dave Collwell, of Chicora.

The Collwells brought the lunch and dessert so the teachers could share in celebrating the five-year anniversary of Acre donating a kidney to Dave Collwell, who is related to Acre by marriage.

“Alyce is amazing in everything she does,” said teacher Amy Scheidt. “She always puts other people first.”

A teacher for 15 years, Acre, of Grove City, said something is done at the school every year for teacher appreciation week, but this came as a surprise.

“You never know what’s coming,” Acre said.

She said she became an organ donor because her father was one. His heart, lungs and corneas were donated after he died.

Her uncle Dave suffered from kidney failure in 2020 and began dialysis in September of that year knowing he needed a transplant.

People were getting tested to determine if they would be suitable donors, but he didn’t know Acre was tested, Cathi Collwell said.

After learning she was a match, Acre’s uncle had to undergo a blood transfusion, and as a result, they were no longer a match. Doctors allowed some time to pass for the new blood to assimilate before retesting confirmed the match, she said.

Successful transplant surgery took place nine months later on May 3, 2021, at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh.

“We passed each other in the hallway on gurneys” following the surgeries, Dave Collwell said.

They stayed in adjacent rooms during their brief stays in the hospital.

“They always say the donor has a longer recovery, but not her. She’s tougher than me,” her uncle said.

Acre was discharged after two days, Dave Collwell after three.

“It was easy, and everything went exactly the way it was supposed to,” Acre said of the surgery.

Neither Acre nor her uncle have had any setbacks.

She said she had to return to the hospital for postsurgical checkups every six months during the first 18 months after the operation.

Waiting for her niece and husband to recover from simultaneous operations was stressful, Cathi Collwell said.

Acre’s husband, Greg Acre, a school principal in Mercer County, and their two children, Alayna and Mara, who were 2 and 4 years old, respectively, also waited at the hospital.

“They were perfect. They were great,” Acre said.

She said family members helped take care of the children while she was recovering at home and neighbors welcomed her home as warmly as they could with COVID-19 social gathering restrictions in place.

She has photos of her neighbors standing in her yard holding welcome home signs.

Dave Collwell said he initially had to return to the hospital three days a week so doctors could check for organ rejection, but he now goes back every six months.

“Looking back, it was such a stressful time,” Cathi Collwell said. “You go in hoping everything will work out the way it’s supposed to.”

The transplant went so well, they joke about it now. The Collwells have gone to Italy on vacation since the operation and tell people, “we went to Italy with her kidney,” Cathi Collwell said.

Acre said in May 2022, she put on a PowerPoint presentation in school about her experience donating a kidney.

On every anniversary of the transplant, Cathi and Dave Collwell send chocolate-covered fruit to Acre’s children to make the day special.