SANDY, Utah — When Wendy Hanks, as ward activities chairman, was asked by her bishop, Mel Young, to come up with a project that would bond the members of the ward in service, she didn't have to look far.
Her friend Kally Heslop had the perfect suggestion: a new facility called The Transplant House, located at the mouth of Little Cottonwood Canyon east of this suburb about 20 miles south of Salt Lake City.
The recipient herself of a heart transplant in 1989 at the age of 29, Sister Heslop's story was featured in the Church News on Nov. 3, 1990. She has frequently been featured in the news media since then, among other things, for participating in the relay that carried the Olympic torch through Utah on the way to Atlanta, Ga., for the 1996 Summer Games.
"Kally has this passion to show that people who have organ transplants can have a life afterward," Sister Hanks said. Today, Sister Heslop is executive director of Common Thread, which administers The Transplant House. Working with two other transplant survivors — Jason L. Ivers, president and founder; and Dycie Ivers, a director — she has transformed the canyon compound of four homes and ancillary facilities into a refuge for patients who must be within an hour's drive of a hospital in order to receive an organ transplant.
Moreover, after the surgery, a patient must spend some recuperative time within the same proximity of the hospital for any further care that might be needed.
Purchased by an anonymous donor for the purpose of conversion into the charity facility, The Transplant House accommodates the patients and their families both before and after the surgery.
Problem was, until the weekend of Nov. 11-17, only a fraction of the more than 40 bedrooms were functional. That was before Sister Hanks and her army of volunteers came through. For the project, which began in her Wasatch 5th Ward, soon expanded throughout the entire Salt Lake Wasatch Stake and into the community. A hotel donated 40 mattresses and box springs to supplement other donations of beds and furniture; LDS Humanitarian Services contributed frames, mattress pads and pillows. Other furniture and bedding came from throughout the community. A carpet-cleaning network donated its services to clean more than 28,000 square feet of carpet as well as mattresses and furniture. Grocery stores contributed food for the more than 100 workers who came to wash windows, move furniture and do general fix-up.
"In fact, we've gotten such a good response, we're almost running out of things for people to do," Bishop Young said during the busy Saturday of Nov. 17.
The Transplant House includes kitchen and bathroom facilities, and a duck and fish pond, to give it a homey atmosphere. There is even a tree house and swing set for youngsters. A garden is cultivated in the summer to replenish the home's storehouse of food for especially needy families.
Patients and their families pay according to their ability. They do the housekeeping themselves. "We have an environment of independence," Sister Heslop said. "We all have problems. We can all be sick at certain times. But we can do something, no matter how small it is. And our goal is to encourage families and those who are waiting to do something to keep them moving forward, so they're not stagnant, to help avoid depression."
The facility has been a Godsend for people like Richard and Janet Dix of LaVerkin, Utah, a rural community far to the south of Salt Lake City. She was the third person in her family to require a heart transplant, and they could not afford to stay at motels in the Salt Lake area and still make the payments to keep their home in LaVerkin, especially when he was required to be available to give 24-hour care to his wife.
"The support you get from the people you live with here is great," she said. "And Jason and Kally and Dycie have all been there. They've helped Rick; they've helped me. It's nice to have someone to talk to who knows what you're going through."
"The main part about healing is having your family around to help you heal," her husband said. "And there is room here that patients could afford to have their families come here to stay with them for a weekend. In a motel or an apartment, there's no place for a family to come and visit or stay, without paying extra."
E-mail: rscott@desnews.com