Manteca family makes sure son's legacy lives on
New Year's Day will be bittersweet for Manteca resident Jose Zaragoza, 45, and his family of four.
More than three years after his 16-year-old son, Matthew Zaragoza Van Gelderen, was fatally injured during an East Union High School football game, Mr. Zaragoza will participate in the 120th annual Rose Parade in Pasadena as a float rider and representative for the California Transplant Donor Network and Donate Life.
Matthew suffered a brain contusion on the field during a game Sept. 16, 2005. Soon afterward, his parents decided to donate his organs in the event of his death.
Matthew died a week later, and his heart, lungs, liver, kidneys and pancreas were used in transplant surgeries.
"More than anything, I wanted to save some part of my son," Zaragoza said. "This was the way I did it."
Soon after Matthew's death, his twin sister, Katrina, was working on a school project about organ donation and attending training with the California Transplant Donor Network, based in Oakland. Zaragoza accompanied his daughter to these training sessions and embraced the cause.
He started speaking at high schools in the San Joaquin Valley and encouraging students to sign up to be donors.
"It's been really positive for my husband, and it's made it easier for him to talk about Matthew's passing," said Zona Zaragoza, Matthew's mother. "When we first consented to (donating Matthew's organs), we didn't go public with it. We were nervous and we didn't really understand what it was. But when we started getting letters from the organ recipients, we knew we had done something special."
Six weeks after Matthew's death, the family received its first letter of gratitude from one of the organ recipients. Within a year, four recipients had written to the Zaragozas.
The family traveled to New York to shoot a segment for "The Montel Williams Show" in which they met two of the recipients of their son's organs, one of whom has since had a child.
"That's one of the things I'm really happy for," Jose Zaragoza said. "I know that girl wouldn't have lived without my son's organs. Now, not only is she alive, but she was able to have a baby. I'm so happy for that."
This year, because of the Zaragoza family's work with the California Transplant Donor Network, Jose Zaragoza was invited to be one of Donate Life's 26 national representatives in the Rose Parade on Thursday.
"The Zaragozas have been amazing volunteers," said Jennifer McGehee, public affairs coordinator for CTDN. "Jose is doing tremendous work in high schools by telling Matthew's story and explaining to students how they can be donors. He's a really great asset to our organization and just a really great guy."
Jose Zaragoza said being in the Rose Parade is just one of the many benefits he's enjoyed since getting involved with the donor network. He said being able to find something positive to make out of his son's tragic death has made all the difference.
"If I wouldn't have donated my son's organs, I would have been so sorry," he said. "It's just sad to let things go to waste when you can use them to save someone."
The Tournament of Roses Parade airs Thursday at 8 a.m. on NBC, ABC and FOX stations.
Bee staff writer Thomas Pardee can be reached at tpardee@modbee.com or 578-2366.
This story was originally published December 31, 2008 at 12:52 AM with the headline "Manteca family makes sure son's legacy lives on."