Advocate Spotlight: Sandy Berg

Sandy (right) with her husband and daughter

Donor Alliance volunteers and advocates are the heart and soul of our efforts to inspire and inform our community about the importance of signing up to be an organ, eye and tissue donor in Colorado and Wyoming. Each of our volunteers and advocates has their own unique and inspiring story to tell. This month, we’re featuring Sandy Berg from Pine, CO. Sandy’s son, Jack, passed away in 2012 and gave the gift of life through organ and tissue donation.

What is your favorite thing about volunteering for Donor Alliance? My favorite thing about volunteering at Donor Alliance is the people I get to meet and work with. The Donor Alliance staff and the Advocates all just feel like instant family. I just feel better about life and my purpose after spending time with like-minded and grateful people.

If you could have any superpower for 24 hours, what would you do? I am not sure if it is a super power but I would get everyone to be kinder to one another and hopefully, it would become a habit in most cases. People are so mean to one another – which reminds me of a piece of advice that my mother used to say “If you can’s say something nice, don’t say anything at all!”

What is the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? The best piece of advice I ever received was from my father and it was, when angry – take a few deep breaths before reacting. This has gotten easier as I have gotten older. Sort of…

What is your favorite holiday and why? Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because it reminds me to be grateful for my many blessings before the craziness of Christmas starts.

What is your favorite season and why? Winter is my favorite season! I love a good snowstorm if we are all safe at home with a fire going, there is homemade soup on the stove-top, the horses are dry with their blankets on and we have diesel for the plow once the snow stops.

What is your proudest accomplishment? My proudest accomplishments are my kids. I think they are pretty good humans who do good things in this world.

What is the last book you read or movie you saw? Would you recommend it? I love to read and the most recent one that I didn’t want to end was, “Where the Crawdads Sing” by Delia Owens. A great movie that was not in the theaters long was “Yesterday”. If you love The Beatles, you will love this movie!

What song would you sing at karaoke night? At karaoke night I would sing anything by a band from Iowa called ‘The Nadas.’ If it had to be a song people recognized it would be, ‘Sweet Caroline’ because that one seems to make everyone smile.

What are some of your favorite hobbies? My favorite hobbies include reading, hiking with my husband and our dogs, fishing and floating down the Platte on tubes with friends on a sunny Sunday afternoon.

If you could take an all-expenses paid vacation, where would you go? If I could take an all-expenses paid trip I would travel around Europe for a month. We went for two weeks last year and the beauty and history surrounding you is just incredible