Gift of Life serves children with congenital heart conditions who live in areas of the world where vital cardiovascular facilities and procedures are not available. District 7490 has sponsored close to 200 children, from a diverse group of nations including Anguilla, Armenia, The Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Egypt, Georgia, Guatemala, Haiti, Iraq, Jamaica, Korea, Peru, Poland, Russia, Trinidad, Ukraine and the United States.

 

Gift of Life doctors, who unselfishly give of their knowledge, skills, and compassion, have traveled world wide to educate local physicians in procedures and new technology. Dr. Joe Amato at Newark Children’s Hospital was the first in a list of surgeons and hospitals to donate their service to the Gift of Life Program.

 

Sponsoring Rotary Clubs and host families are the heart beat of the Gift of Life program. Each involved individual opens up his or her heart and home to the child and family in need of services. The family lives with the local family for anywhere from three weeks to as long as nine months while the child is undergoing medical procedures. The community provides support while we feed, transport, share fear, joy, entertain, comfort, ease anxiety and occasionally suffer the pain of loss. Rotary salutes this great community effort.

 

Since the inception of the program in 1986, The Wyckoff-Midland Park Rotary has saved the life of 11 children, and continues to raise money to to save more in the future. Here are the children we have been blessed to help:

 

YEAR	CHILD'S NAME	COUNTRY	HOST FAMILY
1987	Sebastian Czerniak	Poland	Oarence and Janna Fietje
1990	Jung Lee	Korea	John and Terry Hartman
1997	Khrystyna Kalachynk	Ukraine	Debra and Dennis Mahedy
1998	Maria Hladiy	Ukraine	Jeff and Chris Boucher
1999	Victoria Novosilska	Ukraine	John and Ruth Lucas
2003	David Canela De LaCruz (1)	Dominican Republic	Carolyn and Joe Marguiles
2004	Edwin John Balino (2)	Philippines	Dave and Kathe Rutler
2007	Franklin Rivas	Honduras	surgery done in Honduras
2010	Jamesha Dyer	Jamaica	Dave and Kathe Rutler
2012	Princez Miel Marie Mallari (3)	Philippines	Bob and Charlene Klingen
2014	Jorge Armando Peralta Mansilla	Peru	Paul and Carmen Platek
2017	Nathaniel Donald	Nigeria	Peter & Wendy Brannigan

 

 

1) Co-Sponsored by the RailRoad Construction Company

2) C0-Sponsored by the Eisenhower Middle School ReAct Club

3) Co-Sponsored by the Allendale/Saddle River Rotary and the Northern Highlands HS Interact Club