Marcie Waldron is connecting the ‘dots’

When Marcie Waldron accepted the honor of this year’s Sonoma alcaldesa, or honorary mayor, she knew she wanted to do more than rest on her laurels. “It’s fun to have a title, even if it’s hard to pronounce,” said the long-time Sonoma County community volunteer, about the annual recognition for Sonomans who have given tirelessly to the community.

While Waldron was chosen “due to her long-time-commitment work on nonprofits for the residents of Sonoma,” as Mayor David Cook said, she immediately vowed to use her one-year alcaldesa term to work for a cause she believes in, one that literally saved her life – organ donation.

“My goal is to make Sonoma the most giving city in California in terms of how many people register to be an organ donor,” says Waldron. She calls the campaign, “Got the Dot?” – a reference to the small pink dot that organ donors show on their driver’s licenses.

“I’m a transplant recipient, and that’s why I’m passionate about the cause,” says the 63-year -old California native, who has lived in Sonoma for 15 years. Diagnosed with Type I diabetes at the age of 3, she lived her life watching her diet, taking her insulin and dealing with the disease as best she could. But, as is too often the case, it wasn’t enough.

By the time she was 45, she needed dialysis 10 hours a day, for three full years.

“I was literally tethered to a dialysis machine,” she says. Despite it all, she considers herself in many ways “lucky.” “That’s when home computers were new, and so that’s when I learned how to use my computer,” says Waldron, always looking on the bright side.

Seventeen years ago, she received a double-organ transplant for her failed kidney and pancreas from a donor match in Fresno. For a while she enjoyed recovered health, and even became an athlete, winning a medal at the National Kidney Foundation’s Transplant Games.

But a lifetime of diabetes took its toll, and she lost a leg six years ago. She was fitted with a prosthetic, and is now a familiar sight around town with an arsenal of canes decorated to match her outfits. Her positive outlook is astonishing, and infectious. She takes special pride in the silver-tipped ceremonial cane that comes with the office of alcaldesa.“If I need a cane, I’m going to have fun with canes,” she says.

When the City Council honored her with the position of alcaldesa last month, she had just left not one but two jobs – as president of the Vintage House senior center and interim president of WillMar Family Grief Center. “It was perfect timing,” she says.

She may be in the Fourth of July parade and will fulfill other “official duties” of the honorary office, but you won’t find Waldron just sitting around.

“I don’t know of any other alcaldes who’ve done a community project during their term,” she says. Her commitment to organ donation is a cause made to order.

While the first successful kidney transplants were done just 65 years ago, it is now a life-saving operation for tens of thousands of people every year. Organs that can be successfully transplanted, based on blood type, antigens, size and other factors, include kidneys, pancreas, liver, thymus, even hearts and lungs.

Skin tissue, bones and eye cornea are also suitable for “recycling” from donor to recipient.

Waldron points out that there are about 125,000 people on waiting lists for donations, 20 percent of them in California. In Sonoma alone, she says, there are 20 people waiting for a life-saving transplant – though she won’t say if she knows who they are. They could be people she knows; it could be someone you know.

But there are also many who are unable to get an organ in time. “Twenty people on the waiting list die every day because there are not enough organs donated,” says Waldron. “Everybody thinks it’s a good idea, but a lot people just don’t get around to signing up.”

That’s where Waldron’s Got the Dot campaign comes in.

She points out that it’s extremely easy to become a donor: they ask you at the DMV when you renew your license if you are willing to be an organ donor and if, for some reason, you haven’t already done so you can go online to donatelifecalifornia.org and sign up in about three minutes. They just ask your name, contact info, and driver’s license number, and that’s about it.

The connection between organ donation and driver’s licenses is not just because most organs are harvested from people who suffer fatal head trauma, either from accidents or falls, but because it’s the DMV that’s the designated government agency responsible for asking about, and keeping records of, people’s donation preferences.

When someone dies, their organs are artificially kept functioning by a respirator to keep them viable for transplant. If the deceased is not a registered organ donor, the next of kin can make the decision about donation – a decision that can save lives. If you are registered and have “the dot,” further consent is not needed. “This is an important reason to register now,” stresses Waldron, “so that your family is not left to make that decision for you.”

Waldron plans to use a website, social media, registration stations, handouts in both English and Spanish, and her own considerable contacts in nonprofits and business throughout the county to drive her campaign. “This gives me an opportunity to speak to different groups,” a challenge she has proven herself well suited to over her career in public service. “I’ve got lots of things I plan to do.”

Her plan is to have all of these pieces in play before April, National Donate Life Month. If her ambition and vision come to pass, then Sonoma may take its place among the most donor-conscious communities in the state.

“It’s not controversial,” she says. “It’s all about saving lives after you die.”