Published: November 26, 2008 11:31 pm      

PENDLETON: Girls make bracelets to celebrate one's heart transplant

PENDLETON — They do it for Lexi, who does it for the organ transplant service that helped save her life.

Lexi Keller and her best friend Ella Kroening, both 9 years old, make and sell “boondoggle” bracelets. Every 20 minutes of patient effort they give to looping plastic string begets a nifty piece of jewelry and $2 for Upstate New York Transplant Services. Lexi’s younger sisters, Hannah and Ella, are getting the hang of crafting for charity too.

The girls’ work on the bracelets celebrates the fact that UNYTS helped land a new heart for Lexi four years ago. Their big sister/best friend would not be here, otherwise.

“Making these means a lot,” Ella Kroening said. “It’s for Lexi. It helps her.”

Lexi was born with heart problems and had her first open heart surgery when she was 5 months old. She had a second surgery at age 4, at a Boston pediatric hospital, and became gravely ill afterward. Her heart was damaged irreversibly, her mom Deborah Keller said.

Lexi went onto a transplant waiting list immediately, and into a medically induced coma to spare her body the stress while she waited. Nearly two months passed before a suitable heart became available. She had the transplant surgery and awoke from her coma 10 days before her fifth birthday in August 2004.

Today, the fourth-grade student at St. Peter’s Lutheran School swims and plays basketball as ably as any of her peers. She has no recollection of the traumatic events linked with her transplant, but she still remembers how different she felt when she awoke from her coma. For the first time in her life, she knew what it was to breathe normally.

“I can remember sitting out of gym in preschool because I just couldn’t do the (activities). I remember taking a deep breath and cough, cough, cough,” Lexi said. “When I woke up (from the coma) it was totally different. It was amazing.”

The Keller family have incorporated thanks for the gift of life into their daily lives. While Lexi volunteers her time talking to high school assemblies about the importance of organ donor registration — Look at me, she says unblinkingly — her mom decided to go to work full time for UNYTS.

Danielle Keller is an education specialist for the non-profit agency. Her job is to go out into the community, mainly through educational and corporate institutions, and teach people about both blood and organ donation. They’re more than just words she speaks in her presentations.

“There are over 100,000 people waiting for an organ. Eighteen of them die every day,” Danielle said. “When you’re one of the people who got that call, you realize you’d do anything to give back.”

Lexi, meanwhile, puts herself out on stage as a real-life UNYTS success story. Not only did she get a heart, she received multiple life-saving blood transfusions when she was critically ill. In addition to the assemblies, she’s a subject in public awareness ads on billboards and TV.

Danielle said the appearances are by Lexi’s choice alone and the words are hers, no one else’s.

“Every time she does one of these (appearances), she says to me afterward, ‘I hope that helped,’ ” Danielle said. “She knows how lucky she is. I don’t think she’ll ever take one single second for granted.”

Lexi’s dad, Nick, tends to stay in the background of family service to UNYTS but says he’s proud of all his girls for stepping up on the agency’s behalf.

“It’s phenomenal that they want to do something to try to make a difference,” he said.

The boondoggle bracelets became a UNYTS fund-raiser at the second annual Lexi’s Living The Gift of Life golf tournament, held in September at Shawnee Country Club.

Ella Kroening learned the looping technique and introduced Lexi to it for fun, then the girls got the idea to make and sell the bracelets for charity. They knew two styles, two-knot and zipper, and their fellow classmate, Ryan Pfohl, came up with a three-knot style for something different. All three of them “staffed” the golf tournament Sept. 13, Lexi and Ella selling bracelets and Ryan keeping track of the money. They raised $90 for UNYTS that day.

Since the tournament Lexi and Ella haven’t made as many bracelets — school keeps them quite busy, Lexi said — but they’re game to fill orders if anyone wants them. They’d welcome new looping partners too, Lexi said.

To inquire about purchase or contributing bracelets to the cause, call Danielle Keller at 566-3917.