TRIO Philadelphia entertained special guests at their chapter meeting recently.

Mary Wu, co-leader of the TRIO Youth Circle movement, author, Rose parade float rider, two time kidney recipient, public speaker, Washington testimonial speaker… (need I go on?) and her lifelong caregiver (university professor, cancer researcher, etc.) father, Joe, traveled to Philadelphia to see what we are doing with our TRIO chapter here.  They both offered fascinating stories of their decades of life dealing with her kidney transplants (two) and growing up to the young woman she is now.

Following the chapter meeting, Mary and Joe joined a few chapter members for a tour, lunch and extended conversation in the new Transplant Family House nearby.  Their discussions where both insightful and inspiring, talking about TRIO directions at both the local and national (and international) levels.  For them, it was a long trip involving trains and bus travel of many hours, but they agreed it was well worth the effort and promised to return again in the near future with more time to explore the great Philadelphia sites of interest. 

“Thanks for the sharing and wonderful fun visit, Mary & Joe”