While she was alive, Krysta Hankee never met a stranger she didn't like.

People of all ages were drawn to the exuberant, beautiful, athletic and intelligent woman, and she to them.

It's fitting, although heartbreakingly so, five strangers walk the earth because their bodies were repaired by Krysta's organs, which were donated to them after she died.

Krysta's parents, Bill and Christine Hankee of Germansville, and Kevin Geklinksy of Easton, a transplant recipient, recently spoke to students and faculty at Marion Catholic High School, Tamaqua.

Susan Koomar, community relations coordinator for the Gift of Life Donor Program, organized the presentation along with Marian Director of Development Susie Gerhard and Principal Sister Bernard Agnes.

Koomar is a Marian graduate.

"Everybody in this room has the potential to save lives," Koomar said. "On your driver's license there's a place for organ donor designation.

"We're hoping you say yes."

The special assembly was part of events to celebrate Catholic Schools Week.

Koomer said the Vatican has issued statements in support of organ donation as "an act of charity and love."

The Hankees and Geklinsky know all about that.

Krysta's story

Krysta Hankee, a 2003 graduate of Northwestern Lehigh High School, attended American University for two years before transferring to Leonard Stern School of Business at NYU, graduating in 2007.

Just a few days after graduating, she was hired by Triangle Equities, Whitestone, N.Y.

On Sept. 19, 2007, her parents received the call every parent dreads.

Krysta, 22, had collapsed while working out in a gym before work, and remained hospitalized.

From the time she collapsed to the arrival of paramedics, she had been without oxygen for eight to 10 minutes.

"For five days we sat with her and waited," Christine Hankee said. "Then, one of the doctors told us he thought Krysta had passed away (during the night) and said 'I think we're at the end here.'"

The doctor asked if the Hankees had considered organ donation.

They hadn't, but in looking through Krysta's personal effects, they saw her driver's license.

It was marked "organ donor."

"I wasn't surprised," Christine Hankee said. "It made our decision much easier."

Krysta's lungs, pancreas, kidneys, corneas and two patches of skin were donated.

"It took two days to arrange the transplants, because she had a rare blood type," Bill Hankee said. "While we were sitting there in New York, a friend of our said, 'You can't let it end like this.'"

The Hankee's started the Krysta Hankee Memorial Fund, and a leadership award scholarship is awarded annually to a senior from Northwestern Lehigh High School and Lehigh Carbon Community College

For more information about the memorial fund, go to Krystahankeememorialfund.org.

They also became involved with the Gift of Life Donor Program, helping spread the message about the need for organ donation.

They made arrangements in 2010 to attend the Transplant Games of America, a sports competition for transplant recipients in Wisconsin.

Transplant recipients and donors may write to each other.

The Gift of Life has a branch called Family Support Services, which manages communication between the two.

Some donor families and recipients may eventually meet after a series of letters, but that does not always happen.

The Hankees wrote letters to Krysta's organ recipients. Some responded, but there has been no direct contact.

Kevin's story

Kevin Geklinsky was 12 when he and his family learned he had an untreatable liver disease.

"I went for yearly checkups, played baseball and football in high school, went to college, and each year at the checkup I'd hear I was still OK," he said. "Then one day, I had just gotten into my car and I had an eyelash in my eye. Looking in the rear-view mirror to get it out, I noticed my eye looked yellow, as yellow as this gym floor."

For months Geklinksy hovered, very ill, hoping a liver would become available in time.

The first two organs weren't a good match for him.

"It's a line between being sick enough to get a transplant and healthy enough for surgery," he said. "I was in a hospital bed for about a year, and the hardest thing was watching my family, who were basically watching me die."

Geklinsky was 23 when he received a liver transplant from a 19-year-old woman.

"I had maybe another week or two and I would have been deactivated (because he was too ill) from the transplant list," he said. "There's not a day that goes by I don't think about the gift she gave me."