PATERSON — Her lung disease took from E. Denise Peoples one of the joys of her life — singing.

“It’s hard to sing when you can’t breathe,” she said.

But Peoples — who grew up in Paterson — had a double lung transplant about 17 years ago. And this month, the 60-year-old sang the national anthem at Paterson’s Hinchliffe Stadium at the New Jersey Jackals minor league baseball team’s season home opener.

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“It felt so good to be singing in front the people from home,” she said.

People’s rendition of “The Star-Spangled Banner” was part of a “Donate Life Celebration” at Hinchliffe on May 9, an effort to honor organ donors and to support organ recipients. The ceremonial first pitch was thrown out by family members of deceased organ donor Kelvin Manuel Rodriguez of Passaic.

Looking on was John Hunt, the Jackals’ general manager, who received a heart transplant on the same date five years ago.

Hunt has held similar organ donation celebrations at the other two minor league teams he ran — the Wilmington Sharks in North Carolina and Pierre Trappers in South Dakota.

“We’ve had hundreds of people sign up to be organ donors at events like this in the past,” Hunt said.

4,000 in NJ await organ transplants

The Jackals teamed up with the New Jersey Sharing Network, an organization that operates around the clock to recover and place donated organs and tissue in the state. Almost 4,000 people living in New Jersey are waiting for organ transplants, according to the group.

The number of people who received organ transplants in New Jersey in 2023 climbed to 715, the fifth consecutive year that a record high was reached, according to the Sharing Network. Since 1987, when the Sharing Network was created, more than 15,000 people in the state have received transplants, the group said.

Peoples now works for the Sharing Network as a community services specialist.

Before her transplant, Peoples — who never smoked but suffered from idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis — took her oxygen machine everywhere she went, even into the bathroom when she showered. After her surgery, Peoples’ voice was hoarse from the procedure. It took about eight months before she could sing again.

Now she’s part of her church choir and sings often at Sharing Network events, including for crowds larger than the more than 2,500 people who attended Jackals opening day on May 9.

“It’s emotional for me every time I sing,” she said.

Hunt had owned a radio station in Oregon when he had his heart transplant five years ago. After his recovery, Hunt left radio and started managing minor league baseball teams. He said there was carryover in the sales, marketing, and promotions aspects of the two professions.

Hunt, who is 55, said he was so busy making last-minute opening day preparations that he didn’t have time to reflect on his own health milestone on May 9.

A few games into the 2024 season, Hunt so far has succeeded in turning around the Jackals’ attendance problem. The Jackals had been lowest in the Frontier League after they moved to Hinchliffe in 2023.

Now they are in the middle of the pack, listing about 2,250 people per game, a number that got a big boost when philanthropist Marilyn Clark bought 5,000 tickers for the May 9 game.

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Woman with double lung transplant sang at NJ Jackals game