Wow, can it really be almost eight years with this new heart? As part of Team Philadelphia, my family, friends and I excitedly look forward to joining these 2002 Games to share the good news with the world that transplants work. This is our fourth trip to the Games. What an amazing experience to be in a world where everyone understands first hand what it means to have been given a second chance at life - where daily meds are the norm and people see each new day as special. We look forward to reaching out to those special donor families all around us - a unique chance to express that gratitude we feel to those who have made this celebratin possible.

I carry with me my family's special gift of a new badminton racquet, and with it their hope to bring home a medal. I've never played with a "real" racquet before, only the toy ones used in our simple backyard set of four for $10. Now this one even has a carrying case and they hope it will intimidate some hapless opponent so I can win. Maybe that can make up for the handicap these almost sixty-year-old knees have become. I will need all the help I can get. Between that and table tennis, this non-athlete is looking forward to at least a repeat of the good fortune of an unexpected medal at the 2000 Games, mostly a product of strong heart and desire along with the luck of the age bracket process.

But these Games are so much more than winning medals. They are a celebration of life, a lesson to the world that everyone can make a difference by their decision to be an organ donor. So as our flight is coming into Orlando, I look forward to the week ahead, to competing, to working with the TransWeb team in sharing the Games' experience "real- time" on their website, to encouraging volunteerism with a presentation to a donor family workshop, to renewing friendships with so many we see only every two years at these Games, to cheering on not only "our" Team Philadelphia and its almost 150 athletes but everyone who like me, is here to get the word out that each person can make a difference.

Two Games ago USA Today carried my picture on its front sports page, a very unlikely heart transplanted swimmer giving his all in support of that message. This year it will be somebody else capturing the world's attention with their special effort and interview story. But we will all be there so that story can be told, one of the thousands of such special tales of courage and inspiration of people who are today on their own travels to this week of the US Transplant Games! And with that excitement in my heart, I pause midflight for a prayer of thanksgiving for my heart donor, Roberto, and his family, thanks for so many donor families we have grown close to and those we have yet to meet. And my prayer continues for those friends who cheer us on from afar, both those back home and those who have passed on in the years since we met at those Games in Salt Lake City six years ago. Life is filled with such blessings and memories, memories of our grandchildren high in the stands yelling out: "GO grandpa!" as I replay those ping pong matches from the 2000 Games in my head.

Ok, our flight is cleared from its holding pattern. Orlando and the Wide World of Sports here we come! More stories to experience and be shared with you later. Wish us all luck! (and sign that organ donor card...)