When students at Victor J. Andrew High School attend their driver’s education classes April 19, they will hear an impassioned plea about organ donations from one of their peers.
Sophomore Addison Piel, 15, will talk with four classes at the high school in Tinley Park about the importance of agreeing to donate organs in the event of their untimely demise.
Piel is motivated by the loss of a dear friend.
Maddie “Maddog” Grobmeier, of Frankfort, her teammate in a gymnastics club, died of an asthma attack on June 30, 2019. She was an organ donor.
Piel was touched by the good that came out of such a horrible situation. Several people received lifegiving organ donations.
“I’m going in with the presentation that the Secretary of State’s office is going to be giving. I’ll have 10 minutes to explain my story about Maddie,” Piel said.
The two girls had been teammates at Gym-Kinetics, a gymnastics club based in Mokena.
Grobmeier graduated from Lincoln-Way East High School in 2019.
Grobmeier, who began competing at age 6, had planned to be on the gymnastic team at University of Wisconsin-La Crosse.
“She was always so kind and had an amazing personality toward gymnastics and how much she appreciated each one of her teammates and coaches,” Piel said.
Grobmeier was eight years older than Piel, but they formed a bond.
“Once I joined the team, I was a little nervous because you’re learning new skills. I was worried at the beginning, but watching the skills she had, she gave me courage to push myself,” Piel said.
Grobmeier died the day after her 18th birthday after an asthma attack, Piel said.
Grobmeier’s decision to donate her organs, which can be done on anyone’s driver’s license, “very much so” left an impression upon Piel.
She noted that “it’s sad” many people do not choose to become organ donors.
She admits that she is a tad nervous about speaking to fellow students.
“I’m working on a speech. I’m a little nervous, but since I’m really passionate about it, I think the nerves will go away,” she said.
The memory of her late teammate will be with her as she makes her presentations to four classes on the 19th.
“I think it’s important for people to know that there might be a tragedy that can occur, but there is always a positive outcome by saving other people’s lives,” she said.
“I think Maddie saved eight people’s lives,” Piel said.
“She was involved in a car accident a few months before. She was lucky to come out with bruises and very few bumps. Then she talked to her parents about organ donation,” she said.
After that accident, according to a 2020 Daily Southtown story, Grobmeier talked with her parents about being an organ donor.
“Promise me that you’ll donate my organs so that something good can come from tragedy,” Maddie told her parents, Frank and Cyndi, they recalled in that Daily Southtown story.
Her heart, liver, kidneys, corneas and other tissues were donated, the story said.
Piel said until her friend died, she never knew much about the concept of donating organs to those in need.
“I knew how she helped save numerous lives and that it not only means a lot to her close friends but also the families of the people she saved,” Piel said.
Initially, Piel wanted to form a club about organ donation at Andrew
According to a news release from the school, Doug Bozych, the school’s division chair for Physical Education, Health and Drivers Education, met a representative from the Secretary of State’s office who normally talks to students about organ donation.
It turned out the representative knew Maddie’s story and asked Piel, who is on the Andrew gymnastics team, to become involved.
As Piel explained in the news release: “The secretary of state asked me to get involved due to how close I was with my teammate who passed and donated her organs. They thought it was good for not only a teenager to talk to other teenagers but also just knowing how close I am to my teammate.”
To learn more about organ donations, visit www.madogstrtong.org, a site created by Grobmeier’s parents in August 2019.
Steve Metsch is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.
