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Mark A. Kroeker Receives Wallenberg AwardPRESS RELEASE: December 4, 1995
FOR THE CHILDREN...
Mark A. Kroeker, Founder and Chairman of the Board of the World Children's Transplant Fund (WCTF) is the 1995 recipient of the internationally renowned and prestigious Raoul Wallenberg "Save The Children Award" to be presented December 5, 1995 at a fund raising dinner at the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Dinner proceeds benefit the Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem. An emissary of the American War Refuge Board and the Swedish government, Wallenberg saved countless thousands of Jews in Nazi occupied Hungary. Known as the "Righteous Gentile," Wallenberg gives credence to the adage that one man can make a difference. Kroeker is another person who has demonstrated that one man can make a difference. In 1987, he began a desperate attempt to save the life of an 11-year-old Argentinean girl, Veronica Arguello, who was dying of liver disease. She had to be flown to the U.S., and although three liver transplants failed, Kroeker was inspired to create WCTF, which supplies technology and training to physicians so children don't need to travel thousands of miles for life-saving surgeries. Under his leadership, the organization has built organ transplant centers in Argentina and Costa Rica and hopes to soon expand into Europe. "Throughout America and around the world, children are waiting for us to help them survive through organ transplant surgery," says Kroeker. "The mission of WCTF is to make certain that their wait is not in vain." On January 17, 1945, in return for his courage and humanitarianism, Wallenberg took his last steps as a free man. Escorted by Soviet Occupational Troops, he disappeared into the darkness of the Russian Gulag. What happened to Wallenberg remains a mystery. The Russian position remains that he died of a heart attack in 1987. Kroeker only just began his mission in 1987. Today the fruit of his labor is remembered in the smiles of children around the world. Mark Kroeker and the World Children's Transplant Fund is a founding member organization of the American Share Foundation's Coalition on Transplantation (ACOT), along with the Biliary Atresia & Liver Transplant Network, and the Nicholas Green Foundation and others. All of us at the American Share Foundation join the rest of the transplant community in congratulating Mark Kroeker on winning the 1995 Raoul Wallenberg "Save The Children Award". Mark, you have made a difference. Speaking for ASCOT, as we look forward to 1996, all of our affiliate and member organizations will work with you to make this next years slogan "The Year of the Child" an even greater success for organ donor awareness and transplantation. In addition to the Raoul Wallenberg award, Mark Kroeker has also received:
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