Announcement
Thursday nights game between Dartmouth and Truro at Beazley Field to increase awareness of organ donation and lung disease.
"My brother and sister both died of Idiopathic Lung Fibrosis, a rare disease only treatable by a lung transplant," long-time Dartmouth resident Blaine Gallant recently told friends of the Gallant family. " Over the past few years, Dave continued to tell me that when he got his lungs, the Gallants who have umpired would umpire a game together this year."
Dave, a Dartmouth native who used to umpire local baseball games while stationed in Halifax as a member of the Royal Canadian Navy, passed away in Edmonton on December 2, 2012 before a compatible pair of lungs became available.
Dave's brothers, his son and nephews will honour that wish on June 20th. Earlier that day Blaine will spread some of Dave's ashes at Beazley Field.
The Gallant family will take to the field at game time, 7:30 p.m. on June 20th as umpires. In Dave's place, Jody Frowley, Baseball Nova Scotia President, "will work the plate" in Dave's honour. Dave's wife, Darlene, will throw out the first pitch.
"Part of the goal of the night will be to increase awareness of organ donation and lung disease," Blaine told his family and friends by email. "Our sister Debbie also died of this disease when she was only 44. We are hoping that through their memory we can do something positive and maybe someone in the crowd that night, or someone they know signs a donor card. Maybe somewhere down the road, someone unknown to any of us, will have a second chance at life because of it."
Dave, his brothers and their sons, have all umpired baseball at some point in their life. Dave did for about a decade.
Petty Officer (second class) Dave Gallant retired from the Royal Canadian Navy after a 38-year career, in which he proudly served in several destroyers and on several NATO deployments and completed several tours as a United Nations peacekeeper on the Golan Heights, between Israel and Syria.
He was diagnosed with Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis in 2010. The disease is terminal without a lung transplant.
Blaine notes that "It was a cruel twist of fate that the disease that took our sister Debbie 13 years ago also targeted Dave. He waited for the call that there was a match, a call that never came. We hope that this game will draw attention to the critical need for people to agree to be organ donors and to raise awareness of this tragic disease."
