By Craig Smith ’10
Alumnus Craig Smith will forever remember the day he got the call that a heart was available for his heart transplant surgery—October 15, 2015. Inspired by the events in his own life, Craig is giving back to the community and seeks to raise awareness of organ donation through his newly founded non-profit organization, Second Chance Fundraising, and the first annual Second Chance 5K Run/Walk.
I always find it funny and interesting how life has a way of going in circles.
My parents will tell you that when I was much younger I would boast that someday I was going to be a stockbroker (without really understanding the term), work on Wall Street, and wear a suit to work every day. This, coming from a boy who had never been to a city bigger than Pittsburgh and who didn’t own a suit, was quite the statement! So it came as no big surprise that when it came time for this country boy to think about his future, my decision was to attend Penn State to study wildlife science.
When I first arrived at Penn State Altoona I was a laidback kid who loved spending time outdoors, had a close-knit group of friends, and while friendly with anyone, didn’t actively seek out new friends. Studying wildlife science seemed perfect for me: observing nature outdoors or bottled up in a lab in solitude. As I settled into college life, aided by new dorm friends from the second floor of Maple Hall and a part-time job at a restaurant, I began to climb out of my comfort zone and see a different path laid out in front of me. So, in the fall of 2007, I switched my major to journalism and began the crazy, amazing three-year journey to graduation.
Through equal parts school, friends, summer jobs, and an internship at Centre County United way, I began to realize that I actually loved meeting new people and connecting with them on a personal level. By working as a server in a restaurant, speaking to new people came very naturally to me. With a journalism degree in hand, but without a great sense of what I wanted to do with it, I headed to graduate school at Saint Francis University. The next two years would influence my future more than I could have imagined as a graduate assistant for the Student Activities Organization. Throughout the years, I worked with students, faculty, and staff to plan and operate events such as homecoming, family weekend, and many more. Planning an event and watching it come to fruition with (usually) great turnouts, while working with such a wide array of people, was thrilling for me.
My life came full circle a year and a half later when I got a call informing me that I had been hired to work for PFG Financial Advisors in State College. While I didn’t have to wear a suit to work, and certainly was not on Wall Street, I unexpectedly found myself working with the stock market years after making the claim that I would one day. On top of that, I had the opportunity to move back to State College, a town I had thoroughly fallen in love with during college. With a U-Haul filled with all of my belongings and a new job waiting for me, I couldn’t have possibly imagined the turn my life would take next.
In March 2014, I had been at my new job for two months and was settling into my role nicely. While the finance business was still quite new to me, I was lucky enough to work for a great company that helped me with my adjustment in any way possible. Unfortunately, it couldn’t help me at the end of March, when I began noticing severe chest pain I had never felt before. After a few scary days at the hospital, we found out that I had contracted a virus that destroyed my heart, causing me to fall into heart failure and require a transplant. In a matter of three months, my life had turned upside down twice, and this time, it had a giant question mark surrounding it.
Thanks to the amazing doctors at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, I was able to go a year and a half wearing a left ventricular-assist device (LVAD) which assisted my heart to perform its normal functions. Then, on October 15, 2015, I got the call that they had found me a heart transplant.
I am now closing in on my one-year anniversary since receiving my transplant, and I feel fantastic. I couldn’t be more thankful for the second chance at life that I received from my replacement heart. It wasn’t long after my surgery that I realized there was a bigger cause that I should be helping to promote. It prompted conversations with a friend about having a 5K to promote and raise money for organ donation awareness.
While we’re still quite early in the planning process, over the past few months my friend Derek Partsch and I have formed our own 501(c)3 non-profit, Second Chance Fundraising, and are holding our first event August 6, 2016—the First Annual Second Chance 5K Run/Walk—in our hometown of Johnstown. All proceeds will go straight to organ donation awareness through The Center for Organ Recovery & Education (CORE), a non-profit based in Pittsburgh. Neither of us has any experience planning or participating in a 5K, so this new endeavor has been overwhelming at times, but ultimately so exciting! Beginning with the countless nights talking to customers at the restaurant during my college years, my internship with United Way, and planning various events for thousands of students and family members, this second chance at life has been the most fulfilling.
One of my biggest regrets from my college years is having never taken part in THON. While I never participated, THON’s achievements have always inspired such pride and awe in me. What the Penn State community is able to do when it comes together is one of the things I most often boast about when I speak about my college years. Although it is unlikely that our little non-profit organization will ever raise nearly as much as THON, my hope is that people will look at it in the same light: as people just trying to do good for other people. Because you never know when that circle is going to come back around!
For more information about the cause and to register for the Second Chance 5K Run/Walk, visit http://www.secondchancefundraising.org/.