The Boy Scouts have a familiar motto. But it’s their mission statement that Scoutmaster Tom Stalsitz likes to focus on.
“It has nothing to do with becoming an Eagle Scout, or starting fires,” he says and then adds firmly, “It’s ethical values.” That’s the Scout’s mission – and now Tom’s mission for more than 30 years – ever since he started volunteering when his sons joined.
“To me, that’s what you want to have for your kids,” he says.
He was Scoutmaster when a kid named Joe Brugger joined the troop. Joe lists the fond memories: “Backpacking, hiking, canoeing.”
“The only admonition I got from his mother was, ‘he has to be careful in the woods, because one of his kidneys doesn’t work,'” Tom remembers her saying.
“When I was born, I had complete renal failure,” Joe said.
Doctors were able to revive one of Joe’s kidneys to 80 percent, but they kept an eye on his health over the years. … Tom got tested, was compatible, and the two went off to surgery. It was seamless.
“The next day, it was like anything had never happened,” Joe says. “All the side effects are gone, everything’s gone.”
A decade later, because of Tom, Joe is married and has a four-year-old daughter.
“It’s literally a second chance,” he says.
To read Tom and Joe’s full story, click here!