Jun. 16—WARREN, Minn. — Each year, Roger Hille saddles up for a special kind of horse ride. This one has a specific goal: to raise awareness of the importance of organ, eye and tissue donation.

Trails4Transplants recently conducted its 12th annual ride, dubbed “Coming Home Ride,” in the Greenbush and Karlstad area May 28 to June 1. It led riders to places like Lifecare Greenbush Manor, where riders sang traditional cowboy songs to residents who came outside to see the horses, Hille said.

“That’s a highlight for us and a highlight for the communities,” he said. “What a wonderful group that have enjoyed and participated in our mission.”

The nonprofit has been promoting organ donation for more than a decade. As a co-founder of the group, Hille’s connection to donation is his

son-in-law

, who has received two liver transplants. The organization also raises funds to help donor families and donor recipients through registration for the rides and collecting money along the trail. The group is often fed and supported by communities on the ride’s route, Hille said. Since its inception, Trails4Transplants has raised about $400,000 and has traveled more than 2,570 miles across Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana and South Dakota.

A portion of the funds have regularly gone to the Gift of Life Transplant House in Rochester, Minnesota, a place where donor recipients recover from transplants for a reduced price. Trails4Transplants donates to keep the prices down, but has also given money to build reflection corrals, a patio-type area that meets the house’s sterility standards so recovering patients can enjoy the outdoors during their stay, Hille said.

The Trails4Transplants riders also get a taste of the outdoors during their annual rides, sharing stories, laughter and tears alike. Though the riders from the original rides have been older in age, newer and younger riders are joining the group, Hille said. Some new riders are in the 5 to 15 age range, which he said will be what carries the organization into the future.

Volunteers also help take care of the horses and riders, supplying food and other items to keep the ride going smoothly.

Sally Jacobson

is one of those people, and is an organ recipient herself. She received an 82-year-old liver when she was 61 in 2006, and the now-101-year-old organ is still going strong. She has been an advocate for donation since receiving the organ, and her work has included contributing to a new state law requiring public driver education instructors to include information about organ donation in their curriculum, she said in a

previous Herald story

.

She and her husband provide hospitality to the Trails4Transplants riders by making them food and coffee, loading up other supplies in an old motor home from other contributing organizations. As a fellow advocate for organ, eye and tissue donations, she said the riders for Trails4Transplants are awesome people. An example of their good will she remembers from them is from the height of COVID. Her birthday is at the end of May, and she wasn’t planning to go anywhere. She heard a knock on her door, opened it, and saw several riders from the group on her lawn singing her “happy birthday.”

“They’re just good people,” she said. “I can’t say enough good about them.”

As the group pushes for more people to be organ donors, Hille said he wants people to know the importance of talking with family about that choice.

“I think it’s important not only to check the box on your drivers license, but to visit with your family members so that they know that it’s important to you when you pass that you’d want to be a donor, because those times are difficult for families,” he said.