
Pledge Steve's Climb!!! (Links ready soon!)
Pledge someone on my Full Climb team, Kari's Klimbers!!!
Pledge someone on my Full Climb team, Kari's Klimbers!!!
Registration for the Hustle is Wednesday, November 1st at 8:00am sharp - In the past, it has sold out quickly - in as little as an hour!!! 2018 climb date is Sunday, February 25, 2018.

I started this crazy thing 16 years ago on a lark... I was volunteering at a health fair with
Laura, telling people about organ donation -
and about Kari, who I had recently learned about... She meant, and means everything to me. RHAMC - Respiratory Health Association - had
a booth nearby and, when our duties were finished, I stopped by to tell RHAMC
about the beautiful girl who saved my life - about breathing with her amazing
lungs - and to thank them for what they do for people like me who struggle, or
have struggled for breath.
There were two beautiful chicks manning the booth. If you imagine I had them in tears telling
them about Kari, you imagine right. They told me about their stairclimb up the John Hancock Building - that they had half-climb spots available - that I could climb 800 of
the 1600 steps with them. I told them
I'd think about it...
I went home. I took the
stairs 10 floors to our condo... I emailed
them back and said, "I'm in!" She told me she might be able to get me into the full
climb - 1,632 steps - 94 floors. I think
I hesitated - but I thought this would be a neat way to honor Kari and her
family and what they gave me, so I didn't hesitate long... I climbed in my first Hustle up the Hancock
in 2003.
The next year, 25 people joined with me on my Kari's
Klimbers team. 50 joined me the
year after - and almost 100 every year since!
My third year, Kari's friends and volleyball teammates started
coming out! For my 10th climb, Kari's
mom, her sister, her Godmother and cousin also came out! Can you imagine what it's like to have your
life saved by someone so precious - then find yourself surrounded by her
friends, volleyball teammates, her family, surrounded by people who loved her dearly - who
help you honor and remember Kari???
Outside of my climbing activity - in transplant support groups I
attend, on Facebook, through friends and acquaintances - I'm surrounded by
people waiting for lungs, and waiting for kidneys, hearts and livers. I find it can be incredibly motivating for
them to meet a goof who climbs hundred-story buildings with his new lungs and
with his donor's friends. Many of them
have eventually climbed with me!!! I
connect with people in transplant and organ procurement fields - and with donor
families - who often only see the difficult, donation side of
transplant... I love helping them
understand what they've done for someone...
Many of them end up climbing with me too!
I never did this to raise money - I did this to honor
Kari... But, we've raised well over
$300,000.00 in the past 15 years to support the RHAMC and people with lung
disease. I do this for all of
them... I do this for people who
struggle for air - for breath - like I once did... But mostly I do this for Kari - for who she
was, for the life she led - and for the life she missed. I do this to honor the gift she's given me -
which includes the gift of all of her friends... I do this to remember her - and so others
will never forget her. I do this for
Alex too, who supported me since her early years at the University of Northern
Iowa, and eventually gave me one of her kidneys - and who now lets me tell
others that I'm slowly being rebuilt into a girl from Iowa!
And I do this because of so many of you who have given me and my
team so much support, and you motivate me to haul my
three-sevenths-Iowa-girl-fanny up 1,632 steps every year!
If you've just visited here to get to the 2018 Hustle links, here they are: ( My full-climb team page, my personal page. ) (Keep reading if you've never been here before because the story's the most important part!)
I tried to quit more than once – her beautiful friends would not let me do that. Now I know that I never really wanted to quit. This is what I do. This climb has allowed me to tell so many people, in so many ways, about Kari. (And now, about Alex too…)
26,112 steps!!! When I come out of the stairwells at the top of the John Hancock Center on February 25th, that will be how many steps I’ve climbed at this event over the past 16 years!! 2018 will be the 16th time I’ve climbed in the Hustle up the Hancock with my team named, “Kari’s Klimbers”… The support I’ve received from friends, family, co-workers and the RHAMC over the years has blown my mind. Because of so many generous people, from the time we started in 2003, though this year – my team will have raised well over $300,000 to support the Respiratory Health Association and help raise awareness and fund research towards curing lung disease. And they’ve helped me raise awareness about organ donation – and tell the world about Kari, who saved my life over 17 years ago – whose lungs I breathe with.
Each year for the past 16 years, I’ve had around 100 very special people climbing on my team. You can see my full climb roster ( here ). My team is named “Kari’s Klimbers” in honor of the beautiful girl who saved my life.
Thirteen years ago, Kari’s friends Jenn and Kathryn Amendt and Christian Grandgenett, with their friends Devon and Brandon, came out from Iowa to climb with me – they’ve climbed with me several times… After that, several of Kari’s volleyball teammates joined me. These past years, #15, #12, #9, #8, #7, #4 and #2 – seven of Kari’s volleyball teammates; Tessa Van Oosbrey Simpson, Katie Omdahl, Molly Rodemeyer, Wendy Divis, Alex Redenius, Kelly Page Schrauth and Samara Trenary and their cheerleader, Nicole Geving, along with their volleyball coach and history teacher, have come out from Iowa, Minnesota, Kentucky, Wisconsin and Illinois to climb with me…
I was obviously blowing a little smoke when I announced in 2010 that it was going to be my last climb – I said that I would be taking a few years off to do other things… The morning after that climb, having breakfast at Blackie’s, a half dozen girls walked in – the girls I mentioned above… Ten years before, they had played volleyball with her, and when she passed away, they created a little t-shirt in their friend’s memory. Kari’s Mom sent me one of those t-shirts nine years ago. After wearing it for so many years, it might have been looking a little funky because I wear it to every athletic event in which I participate… These beautiful girls had a duplicate shirt screened just for me, and they handed it to me with a couple of shirts from Kari’s hometown, Algona. And then one of them leaned in close and said, “We’re coming back next year. And YOU are climbing with us.” (Just in case I’d had any thoughts to the contrary…)
Apparently – this is what I do and there is not much I can do to stop it… It’s bigger than me. I do this climb to honor Kari. And, I do this to honor her Mom and Dad and her Sister and Brother-in-law, and her precious little niece and nephew, Eva Kari and Garret… And I do this to honor all of the precious friends who surrounded her and loved her, and who she loved… Can you imagine what I feel like when I’m surrounded by friends she loved???
Apparently – this is what I do and there is not much I can do to stop it… It’s bigger than me. I do this climb to honor Kari. And, I do this to honor her Mom and Dad and her Sister and Brother-in-law, and her precious little niece and nephew, Eva Kari and Garret… And I do this to honor all of the precious friends who surrounded her and loved her, and who she loved… Can you imagine what I feel like when I’m surrounded by friends she loved???
In 2001 and 2004 Kari's friend Jenn wrote two beautiful poems you can see by following this link.

At dinner, Kari brought up the topic of organ donation saying without hesitation that she didn't understand why someone wouldn't want to help someone else when they were through with life here. A few weeks later, she and her sister Lys were swapping driver's licenses and checking out one another's pictures. Her Mom says Kari "jumped all over" Lys because she didn't have organ donor indicated on her license. A few weeks after that, her family had to make a tragic decision, but Kari had already helped them with that decision. At the most devastating moment in their lives, they reached out and saved mine. Kari brought her big smile into my life on April 8, 2000, when she and her family gave me both of her lungs.
My name is Steve Ferkau and I've lived for 57+ years with cystic fibrosis. CF patients usually develop very thick mucus in our lungs and elsewhere… In the lungs it harbors infections which create scar tissue, and gradually builds up to a point that our lungs cease to function properly.

A few years later I fell in love with my princess, Laura. I found that love trumps fear. I got my next collapsed lung fixed… but the next one was also my prelude to transplant.
When I was listed for transplant in September 1997, my lung capacity was about 10% of a normal person's. I was on oxygen around the clock. I was on countless medications and required chest physical therapy. For four treatments totaling eight hours every single day for three years, someone was pounding on my chest - and pounding hard enough that we broke ribs 6 times in those three years.
While I waited - Every night while I was winding down from my last two-hour pounding… I sat in the dark in my bed for 30 or 40 minutes before I went to sleep. I said my prayers. I'd ask a lot of people up there for help… I couldn't bear the thought of leaving Laura... And I'd always think about my future donor and pray that they were enjoying their life… I'd think that maybe I could hold out just a little bit longer and give them a little more time to finish what they had to finish.

My first dinner at home after my transplant, I sat at the table with Laura, my mom and my sister. After dinner, and for little apparent reason, I started to cry. They all looked at me... they were a little concerned. When I explained to them why, they started crying too. It had just dawned on me that we didn't have to get up and go pound on my chest. (My first letter to Kari's family)
Nowadays, I open my eyes in the morning, stretch and take a breath- and I don't hear my chest gurgling! It's been over seventeen years, and I still walk around in complete awe of how this feels! The doc gave me permission to swing a golf club six weeks after my surgery. So I fit a few rounds into my schedule that first summer...I still stunk...and it was absolutely wonderful! After three years off, I was back at work 10 weeks after my surgery. There is a double flight of stairs from the trading floor to my offices that I hadn't climbed in 10 years. I didn't even go DOWN them in the last five years. Now, every chance I get, I bound up those stairs two steps at a time. And every time I get to the top I smile, because I know who got me there.
I've been in contact with Kari's family for a almost fifteen years. In June, 2003 Laura and I drove out to Iowa to meet them. We met Kari's Mom and Dad, Lisa and Larry… her Sister and Brother-in-law Lys and Chuck… Kari's Grandma Willie and Kari's close friends Nick and Alex (who eventually gave me her kidney) and Abby and Kari's boyfriend Ryan. We also met Sandy, the beautiful recipient of Kari's heart. Meeting all of them was one of the most special times in my life. Hearing stories about Kari and seeing so very many pictures brought her so much closer to my heart. The weeks after meeting them felt more emotional for me because meeting them gave me a better understanding of the depth of their loss… And I also had an understanding of the love that surrounded Kari while she was here. The first letter I received from Kari's family painted a beautiful picture of Kari and her family. (Kari's family's first letter)


It's one of my most prized possessions in the world. I wear it when I do any athletic event that I would have never dreamed of doing before I received my beautiful lungs… And sometimes I wear it just to feel special.

These past several years when I've climbed the Hancock in the "Hustle up the Hancock", the support I've received from so very many folks there has been incredible… They saw that I had so much fun that first year, and my teams have had so much fun in following years. This year I'll have an even larger team of special people climbing the Hancock with me to support the Respiratory Health Association. (Kari's Klimbers 2018 team page) Kari's given me a life I never dreamed possible. Organizations like the Respiratory Health Association and CF Foundation help me, and so many people like me, live longer better lives. Kari and her family are my heroes - Kari saved my life when I needed her most. But so many of these people, and people like those on my team, helped carry me to her door. They are my heroes too.

I sometimes like to think that the thing that keeps this world lubricated, and moving forward, is when we reach out to help other people. We all have our jobs, and they're very important… They sustain us and our families and benefit others… But so many things and people tend to fall through the cracks…
In 2004, 26 people joined me climbing the Hancock for the American Lung Association. In 2005, 51 people joined me. Between 2006 through 2016, hundreds of people have joined my team. We have some fun… We raise some money for a good cause. The people climbing with me will likely never know the lives they've touched. Volunteerism is funny that way. In 2003, I raised $9,000. In 2004, my team helped me raise almost $19,000. Between 2003 and 2017 we raised well over $300,000. In the grand scheme of things, that might not seem like enough to move mountains, but $300,000 might help a lot of kids with asthma breathe easier… Or help several people stop smoking… or help fund efforts to reduce power plant emissions. Without it, a few kids with asthma might struggle a few extra days - I understand what it feels like to struggle for breath… I'm alive today because of organizations like the Respiratory Health Association, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, Gift of Hope, Iowa Donor Network… And very important; I'm alive today because of people like the friends who climb with me and the people who so generously give to my team members. I'm so incredibly proud of all of them… I'm proud of the thousands of people involved. And to a kid who's having trouble breathing - The money they help raise WILL move a mountain for him or her.
There are over 120,000 people in the United States waiting for an organ. 6,000 people die every year because they did not receive an organ they desperately needed… Those numbers seem overwhelming when you're considering whether deciding to become an organ donor really matters that much. But, I have a little story I love to tell, and have told so many people - it's about the power of one person, and one decision...
One night along the East coast somewhere, there was an incredible storm… The storm washed up thousands of starfish onto the beach, where they lay in the morning sun. A young boy was out on the beach. He was furiously flinging starfish into the sea. A man strolling along saw the boy bustling… He walked up to the boy and asked him why he was doing it… He told the boy that there must be ten thousand starfish… He said that the boy could do this all day and never make a difference. The boy looked up at the man a little puzzled… He reached down and picked up a starfish and flung it out to sea with all his might… Then he looked up at the man and said, "I just made a difference in the life of THAT starfish!"
I was one of Kari's starfish.
Thanks for reading some of our story… I hope you're around and using your organs for a long time. But when you're through with life here, I hope you'll think about letting someone else borrow them. Sign your donor registry in Illinois or Iowa, or find your state's! And make sure you tell your family how you feel about organ donation. It's more important than signing your license!
I know a beautiful young girl from Iowa who knew how she felt and she told her family… I think about her every single day.
I know a beautiful young girl from Iowa who knew how she felt and she told her family… I think about her every single day.

Contact Steve at: BreathinSteven@gmail.com
Here is a YouTube video produced by Donate Life Illinois in 2008 about Kari and me that I'm pretty proud of:
And here is another YouTube video created in 2012 by a young woman I met during one of my hospital stays - another video I'm also pretty proud of:
22 comments:
Thank you for sharing your story Steven. Our web that connects us all is so amazing. Thank you for commenting on my blog as well. Even though it is nothing I have had to be faced with yet, I'm a firm believer in organ donation. Best wishes to you.
Julie
Thanks for commenting on my blog :-) I love your story - it gives me hope that someday I'll have new lungs too. I'm not even close to the transplant list yet - I'm hoping for another 10 years or so before I have to be listed.
Thank you again for sharing your wonderful story with me!
Keep in touch!!!
Love,
Carla
Amazing, amazing story.
Good luck to you. :)
Thanks so much for sharing this story. Clay is recovering from his transplant success as I type this. Pray that all continues to go well my new friend!
Steven-
I'm just curious...have you met my mom before? I'm getting lots of emails/comments from folks that are in her PPH support group in Memphis. You sound like you know her personally and I was just wondering.
Regardless if you do or don't, I was VERY encouraged by your words. It seems as though I'm hearing LOTS of survival stories from others. Huge encouragement right now.
I will come back to your blog and read soon. I'm anxious to read more.
Thank you again for your kind words and encouragement!
Leah
Dear Steven,
You tell such a beautiful and miraculous story. Thanks so much for sharing. I love stories and especially people who can tell a good one. Jenn's poems were so beautiful and delicate. I know she was probably a dear friend to Kari. Kari was probably a great person and so talented. She was no doubt a special person. It's people like her that reminds us that hope is always there...
"Hope is the thing with feathers, that sings the tune without the words, and never stops at all..." - Emily Dickenson
That is fantastic. I don't know if my asthma would allow me to climb the same steps and I am relatively healthy. I look forward to reading more of your blog in the future.
Lou
thanks for stopping by my journal.
I'm also an organ donor but have real bad copd
Thanks for the wonderful encouraging words! I have read your story--found you through dancing65roses...just haven't commented until now. Rickie's on IV meds again for the umpteenth time this year...he has PFT's again tomorrow, hopefully--they'll be better and he can get off the meds!!
Take care and thanks again...would love to hear more about your climb...maybe get involved. My husband swam for CF this passed summer 13 miles it was amazing a lot of press and awareness for CF.
Again thanks and God bless!!
Carey
Amazing! Thank you Steve.
Thank you Kari. What a beautiful gift. You will always be remembered by all of us!!
Best wishes to all other recipients here.
Hi Steve,
You commented on my blog post about Lara's fundraiser to get a new set of lungs, and I wanted to come and thank you for sharing.
So, thanks!
Amanda
Theres only one word. Immense. I hate stairs at the moment. Whilst one or two flights are ok, a whole building... there is no way my little legs would do that (or my lungs. One day though!!)
You have an amazing story and so does Kari. If theres one amazing thing to do after you've left the Earth, its to save someone's life. Keep running up them stairs!! Xx
Beautiful story. You do great honor to Kari by telling it.
Hi - saw your comment on Megan's blog. What a fantastic inspiration you must be to the other CFers out there. Well done you and I look forward to seeing your 50th birthday post.
Mad x
Hey Steve hope you don't mind I stole your video and posted it on my blog. I loved it...Don't know how I missed it the first time. Everytime I read it I am inspired! Thank you sir!
Thank you for your AMAZING comments on my blog. It just proved to me what a brilliant decision I made. Wish I had signed up earlier :) xxx
Hi,
My name is Sharon Ray and I am the assistant editor of Cysticfibrosis.net. I am contacting you today in hopes of developing a relationship with your website; we have seen your site and think your content is great. Cysticfibrosis.net offer a free informational resource to both the general and professional public on this terrible disease.
I hope you show some interest in building relationship, please contact me at sharon.cysticfibrosis.net@gmail.com.
Steve, thanks so much for commenting on my raw food blog and leading me to your pages. You are doing a fantasitc job raising awareness of organ donation and money to support those who need it. It makes me 100% certain of my decision to become a donor quite a few years back now. Long may it continue. God bless - Amy
Hey Steve, what an amazing story! Sadly here in Canada they keep the donors ananomous. I guess in some cases its a good thing, but I think I would always love to know who gave me my second chance.
Steve, Thanks for your comment on my blog.. I love the way you use your words. I love your story, you are an amazing man. Love to your family!
I have read your story here. Amazing. I have leaned from it and hope to touch base with you and your blog from time to time. Thank you for commenting on my blog. I wish you luck, the good kind and send best wishes your way.
Thank you for sharing this story! I'm Heather and I have a question regarding your blog! My email is Lifesabanquet1(at)gmail(dot)com :-)
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