There's something to be said about a person who works tirelessly at their own fundraiser.
"Would you like a chair?" Dayna Tate asked the volunteer running the register at her plate fundraiser.
This just seems to be the kind of person the mother of two is, as she served food and lugged bags of ice to refill the coolers on a hot 98 degree day.
"That’s what we do in my family," Tate said. "We try to encourage compassionate, loving people." That compassion shone through after Tate read a heartbreaking Facebook post she came across a couple of months ago.
"It said, 'My mother lost her one living donor; we're honestly on a short timeline. We're definitely not ready to lose her and the surgeon says she doesn't have much time,'" she read aloud. Dayna said she saw the post skimming through a community Facebook page and immediately felt compelled to do something.
"For someone I didn't even know," she added. "I cry when I read stuff like this because I'm an emotional person. So I messaged her and said, 'I need more information about this.'"
Dozens of tests and about two and a half months later, Dayna met Ermenia on Sunday morning for the fundraiser to offset costs in their transplant surgery. A surgery between two total strangers.
"I was just happy to hear that she was willing to do this. I didn't think there were people out there that were willing," Ermenia Coronado said as she began to cry.
Coronado is suffering from liver failure, and not too long ago, she said her doctor gave her 6 months to live.
"[The doctor] said, 'this is bad; this is really bad, everything is happening too fast for you,'" she said as she held on to her faith. Just a few months later, in came Tate, willing to be her living liver donor.
"They just take a portion of your right lobe and over the full year, your left lobe grows and takes that space that your right lobe was in," Tate explained. "It's the only organ in your whole body that regenerates."
Dayna will give a piece of her liver to Ermenia and science will do the rest. But the surgery doesn't come without a price. Dayna is a single mother of two, a truck driver who often has to work 2 to 3 jobs to make ends meet and will be out of work for at least 8 weeks.
On Sunday, the community held a plate benefit to raise funds to offset the bills she'll face.
But if one thing is clear, there's no amount of money that can repay the compassion a person could have.
"That's what we're here for, we're supposed to love one another unconditionally and help no matter the circumstances," Tate said as Coronado looked on with a smile.
A GoFundMe page has also been set up to help offset those costs Dayna will have. If you would like to know more about becoming a living donor you could find more information on the DonateLife website.
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