Former West Liberty softball student-athlete Shannon Baldauf had a list of things to do before she graduated. One of the more innocuous items was to go to a zoo. Another more significant desire – and a lifesaving one at that – was to donate a kidney.

Now she’s done both.

A story by Don Clegg in The Intelligencer (Wheeling, West Virginia) details Baldauf’s decision to donate one of her kidneys to a man she barely knew.

“When I was 12 years old,” she said, “I had a cousin who was born with only one kidney. At the time, doctors thought he might need a kidney transplant when he got older. I remember thinking, ‘Hey, I’ve got two kidneys. When the time comes, I’ll just give him one of mine.’”

Her cousin was doing fine by the time Baldauf arrived at West Liberty, but while helping a classmate with an Internet search about organ donation and living donors, Baldauf was reminded of the commitment she had made to herself.

“I figured if he wasn’t going to need one of my kidneys, someone else could have one. I sat down and made out a list of 15 to 20 things I wanted to do before I graduated from West Liberty,” she said. “The kidney transplant was on there but so were a bunch of other things like taking a walking tour of Pittsburgh, going to a musical, buying ice cream at the new Cold Stone Creamery at The Highlands and taking a trip to the zoo. I was 20 years old and I had never been to a zoo.”

Read the full story here.