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| AHEPA Chapter President George Giovanis, right, presents the Humanitarian Award to AHEPAN Jason Hornberger, who donated life-saving organs twice to a fellow Berks County resident. |
Guest C. Kraras AHEPA Chapter No. 61 member Jason Hornberger was honored on Sunday, May 16, 2021, at Sts. Constantine & Helen Greek Orthodox Church in Reading, Pa., for his generous organ donation to save the life of another Berks County resident. Below is the text of the presentation made by AHEPA Chapter President George Giovanis:
·
I
would like to share a heart-warming story that involves a caring spirit of one
of our Brothers of our Reading chapter.
Brother Jason Hornberger has been active in our AHEPA Chapter for 8
years now and always supports everything about our fraternal group and attended
our meetings and functions. Jason’s
mother is a Greek Orthodox lady who we know from South Jersey. In fact, Jason’s Papou was an Ahepan in the
Wildwood Chapter which was organized and chartered by our departed Brother Gust
Kraras.
·
The
story I want to tell you about involves Jason’s incredible heart. Four years ago, there is a good friend of
many of ours in the community by the name of Dick Henry, who unfortunately,
because of much of the medicines and drugs that were prescribed for Dick, had a
tremendous effect on his liver, and he needed a transplant. Literally thousands of people were tested to
see if there was a match for Dick and he was coming up empty as far as any
possible donor. Along came Brother Jason
who got tested, and even though he only knew Dick slightly, it turned out Jason
was a perfect match and he offered to be the donor. Jason spent weeks preparing to be the liver
donor for Dick Henry, which he completed over three years ago. That was an incredible sacrifice and one by a
young man in his early thirties who is married and has two young children.
·
But,
the story gets even more amazing and intriguing. Over the past few months, Dick Henry, because
of the effects of so many anti-rejection drugs that he has been taking, actually
ended up with kidneys failing dramatically and to a point where it was life
threatening once again. Absolutely
incredibly, Jason was once again a match and even more incredibly, he decided
to donate his kidney to Dick Henry, which he did in early March.
·
Both
of these transplants were done at the University of Pennsylvania Hospital where
they said they had never had, in all their history, another person who ever
donated two organs to anybody.
A plaque was
presented to Jason in Church on AHEPA Day, May 16, 2021, that reads:
AHEPA
MERITORIOUS AWARD Presented to Brother Jason Hornberger for your Humanitarian
Efforts in providing the Gift of Life to help another in need. Your Proud Brothers of AHEPA Chapter #61 – Reading,
PA
