The community in the Boyertown area came together to support Maritza Ventresca, a second-grade teacher at Upper Frederick Elementary School, who requires a kidney transplant. She recently found out that she has been matched with a living donor.
Ventresca, in a recent email to MediaNews Group, expressed her gratitude for having two matches, both from the community. One is a fellow teacher, and the other is a football/wrestling coach from her son’s Optimist program. She considers herself extremely fortunate to have such support.
One year after marrying her husband Pete, who is a coach and physical education teacher, Ventresca, from Gilbertsville, was diagnosed with a kidney disease.
“Twenty-two years ago, I was diagnosed with IgA nephropathy. My initial reaction was one of shock because I was only 28 and had just gotten married less than a year earlier. Then I felt a lot of fear because I was uncertain about how it would change my life,” shared Ventresca.
Last summer, she learned that she would require a kidney transplant.
To raise awareness for organ donation and show support for Ventresca during National Donate Life Month in April, the Boyertown Area School District posted a #FightingLikeaBEAR message on its Facebook page, urging community members to check if they could be potential donors by visiting the Penn Medicine site, www.pennmedicine.org.
The district also shared a photo of staff wearing blue shirts, an effort that Ventresca has mentioned was a team collaboration. Boyertown art teacher Tom Dareneau challenged his students to create a T-shirt design, and Ventresca chose the final design from their ideas. The winning design was by Peyton Hartline. Team Kidney4Maritza wore that T-shirt at the Philly Donor Dash Walk in April.
Ventresca shared her immense appreciation for the community's support in a Facebook post, saying, “This community has really gathered to support my family and me. I am extremely grateful for all the outreach. It brings me closer to finding my match.”
Ventresca also reported on her Kidney 4 Maritza Facebook page that Team Kidney4Maritza had 49 members participate in the Philly Donor Dash Walk and raised $3,337 to help raise awareness and support Howie’s House.
In a statement to MediaNews Group, Ventresca expressed her gratitude: “I am incredibly thankful to my community. They have come together and provided unwavering support for me and my family, from my son’s Optimist football team to my school family at NHUF. They have been there for us when we needed them most.”
A Devotion to Teaching
A teacher in the Boyertown Area School District for the past 20 years, Ventresca currently teaches second grade at New Hanover Upper Frederick Elementary School.
“I appreciate that even though Boyertown covers a large area, it still maintains a small-town atmosphere. Everyone is interconnected and familiar with each other,” Ventresca remarked.
Sharing her teaching philosophy, she stated: “I believe that establishing a sense of community within my classroom is priceless. The children need to feel secure and listened to in order to be able to learn. This sense of a classroom family is extremely important to me.”
Ventresca knew from a young age that she wanted to be a teacher. She used to pretend to teach her stuffed animals. Education is her passion but lately, it's been harder for her to work because of her kidney disease. She also has a corneal disease that affects her ability to drive at night.
She has experienced challenging times in teaching due to her medications and their side effects. But the most difficult part has been having to take time off for extensive testing and short hospital stays. Writing substitute plans while in the hospital is a tough challenge that most people don't realize.
Gift of Life Program
The Gift of Life Program, which marked its 50th anniversary in April, is collaborating with the Ventresca family to raise awareness about her need for a donor organ.
For Ventresca, the Gift of Life Donor Program has provided her with valuable information that she can then share with people in her community.
She can educate them about the importance of organ donation. This makes the information available for them to access when they are ready. It can be overwhelming to take in.
The donor program has also helped her connect with others in her community who have also received transplants.
It can be very lonely, but it becomes less scary when you find others nearby who have gone through it.
Overall, Ventresca hopes that people can understand how crucial organ donation is.
It truly changes lives. In my case, kidney donors can continue to have a long, virtually unaffected life after donating. I hope more people will think about donating their organs after they pass away. You can continue to give life to many others after you pass.
She has been an organ donor since getting her first driver’s license and was previously only familiar with being a deceased donor.
“Only recently have I been aware of all the help living donors can provide,” she said.
Now that she has been matched with a living donor, Ventresca emphasizes the importance of organ donation.
“Organ donation is the ultimate gift. You’re giving someone a new lease on life,” she said. “I’m especially a proponent of deceased donation because it doesn’t inconvenience anyone. Even in passing, you can change the lives of many people.”
Getting a kidney transplant means everything to Ventresca.
“It would mean I’d get to see my son graduate, fulfill his dreams and hopefully find love someday,” she said. “I’d get to grow old with my husband of 23 years and continue to live a life of adventure. I believe in living a full active life, full of memories. I just want to get to do that a bit longer.”
“Everyone has the potential to save Maritza's life and thousands of other waitlist patients through deceased organ donation, regardless of age, health, or medical history. One organ donor can save up to eight lives,” Richard D. Hasz Jr., MFS, CPTC, president and CEO of the Gift of Life Donor Program, said in a statement.
In recognition of the Gift of Life Donor Program’s 50 years of service, Hasz said, “We’re rallying our community, including all our neighbors in Berks and Montgomery counties, to sign up 5,000 more organ donors – one for each person on our region’s waitlist.”
Hasz mentioned that signing up at the website is simple, private, and can be done in less than a minute. donors1.org.
Hasz stated, “Working together, we can make sure every patient on the waitlist gets another opportunity for life.”
