Organ Recipient Throws Out First Pitch

Originally Published: Mar 27, 2010 10:4 PM CDT

Jessica Coody

Oklahoma Sports Mobile Journalist

NORMAN, Oklahoma -- Curtis Kingfisher is living for the moment but it's a moment he almost didn't live to see.

"One day Curtis is just a die hard OU fan, the next day he is a Sooner for a day and the next thing you know he is connected to the OU family through his kidney donor," Curtis' dadFloyd Kingfisher said.

Curtis was able to throw out the first pitch at the Sooners' game against Missouri because of Mariee Mena, the former OU softball player who passed away last fall after a motor cycle accident.

"He’s got a long future now, and it’s because of her donation," Kingfisher said.

Mariee was best known as a giver, for those that knew her well and for those who didn't know her at all.

"She definitely was a giver, I mean that’s just who she was. I know there wasn’t a second guess on what she wanted, her plans were to be an organ donor," Mariee's brother Steve Mena said.

"It just says how much she cares about people I think we should all be that way, she just cares about people. It says that she was a loving person," Kingfisher said. "It just tells me how wonderful of a heart she had just how giving she was, even her last wish was to help someone else."

Mariee lived to give and for Curtis and the Kingfisher family she was able to give the greatest gift of all...life.

"You don’t ever want to experience but once it does come you can have a little bit of peace of mind knowing that at such a young age somebody that left us is now giving back to others and their families now have a second chance with them it does give you a great peace of mind and a sense of pride as well because it’s the ultimate way to give," Mena said.

"I can’t say Thank you enough. Thank you is not a big enough word. What we could say to her family to Mariee, it wouldn’t be enough for what we feel in our hearts for what she’s done for my son," Kingfisher said.