It was a special day at Kelowna General Hospital (KGH) on Wednesday, Dec. 4 as volunteers from BC Transplant hosted their 33rd annual Operation Popcorn event, as a way to give back to healthcare professionals working in organ donation.

For about an hour, a group of seven volunteers went to four different hospital wards to hand out bags of popcorn to healthcare workers as a thank-you for all they had done.

The event put smiles on the workers' faces as well as the volunteers, who have all donated themselves, and know someone who did or has received a donation.

Included in the group was Dan Faulkner, whose wife was the first person in B.C. and third in Canada to be an organ donor while going through medical assistance before she died here in Kelowna. As the group went ward to ward, Faulkner held a photo of his wife.

"It honours her," said Faulkner. "She was so strong and definitely motivated right til the very end to do it and it was a fantastic gift she gave to a lot of people."

He's been volunteering with BC Transplant for two years now and he said while going to events, he's "actually bumped into some of the nurses and doctors who did the procedures with her."

Emmy Pachenski has a similar story, before her father died he had signed up to become an organ donor. When he died five years ago, his lungs, liver, kidneys, and eyes were all donated.

She said her dad being a donor gave her and her siblings a better chance to grieve together. 

As for volunteering and being part of Wednesday's event, Pachenski said, "It's awesome, it's so great to actually meet the people who are working on both ends of it... it's a really great way to come together and grieve on my own."

Other volunteers included Lake Country residents Stacy Rodriguez and Letecia Hayes, who are also both donors. The two of them met working for the BC Cancer Centre when Rodriguez became a match to donate her left kidney, which she did anonymously to someone in the Lower Mainland in May 2023. She has since met the person who she received her kidney.

During the process leading up to his donation, anyone who's going to donate can pick a companion to accompany them. Rodriguez picked Hayes and throughout the process, Hayes said to herself "I think I can do this."

Five months later in November 2023, Hayes donated her liver in Toronto. The liver is an organ that grows back and Hayes in her year-later follow-up appointment was told her liver had fully grown back.

"We've both been through this together, we both decided to do the transplant volunteer together and now we do events together in Kelowna," said Rodriguez. "It's very special to us to give back," 

Faulkner, Pachenski, Rodriguez, and Hayes all carried and expressed a consistent message, for everyone to sign up to become an organ donor and it saves lives. 

Anyone who wants to become an organ donor can sign up on the BC Transplant .