Baby Joe Mesi's Fight for Organ Donation Foundation

The Buffalo Bean received a tip that a charity founded by State Senate Candidate Baby Joe Mesi amounted to a “war kids relief” problem, invoking the short-lived non-scandal that befell Jon Powers for about two days.

Specifically, the allegation is that Mesi’s charity only gave out $13,500 in grants while paying Mesi’s father $16,500. The implication, obviously, is that Mesi set up the charity just to pay his dad off, and that the charitable purpose was just a cheap pretext.

I thought the attacks on Jon Powers having to do with War Kids Relief were not only patently false – and proven so – but that they were unfair, because the founder of a charity shouldn’t be subjected to ridicule just because the otherwise noble effort doesn’t live up to expectations.

Likewise, I think attacking Mesi for this is equally unfair.

By way of disclosure, I consider Michele Iannello a friend and am supporting her candidacy for SD-61. I’ll write it up and explain why sometime this week. However, if Mesi wins the primary election, I will support him in his campaign against Mike Ranzenhofer.

I contacted Mesi’s campaign after reading Bean’s post and asked them for a statement. What follows is what they sent:

The Joe Mesi for State Senate campaign has issued a response to rumors generated by his opponents about the Baby Joe Mesi’s Fight for Organ Donation Foundation. In addition to Joe’s statement, several allies in the health care community who are appalled by attacks on Joe’s charity work have also spoken out on his behalf.

John Herman COO of Kenmore Mercy Hospital, quickly responded. “We are grateful for all of the work Joe Mesi and his foundation have done on behalf of organ donation over the years including a contribution from the Baby Joe Mesi Organ Donation Foundation to the Kenmore Mercy Hospital Foundation. We used the contribution to embark on a joint project in which materials explaining how organ donation works were provided to Kenmore Mercy Hospital patients. The project has been a success and we feel it has had a positive impact on organ donations,” said Herman.

Yesterday, Joe joined Upstate New York Transplant Services at a community blood drive at ECC to support the work done by UNYTS and to spread awareness about the great need for organ donations. UNYTS spokesperson at the event, Danielle Keller, said, “The work Joe has done with the Fight for Organ Donation Foundation shows Joe’s commitment to health care issues. We are pleased with Joe’s willingness to always promote organ and blood donations throughout our community.”

STATEMENT FROM JOE MESI

As I have said before, my cousin Ganelle was the real fighter in our family. When she died in a tragic accident while waiting for a second kidney transplant, my family and I were inspired by her fight to continue working on behalf of the organ donation cause.

I founded the Fight for Organ Donation Foundation in 2003. We have raised over $13,000 in contributions for organ donation services and research. Kenmore Mercy Hospital and the Children’s Hospital at Strong are the two benefactors of our contributions. As we stated in the foundation’s tax records, the goal of the foundation is to raise the public’s awareness and educate the public regarding the need for organ donation and to raise funds to provide financial assistance to organizations which are involved in organ donation activities.

We ran a slim budget that got us by on scheduling for public events, materials, and administration. Thankfully, my father, Jack Mesi, offered to help run the foundation for a paltry fee of $400 a month, which he ceased receiving three years ago and he has not been paid at all in the years 2007 and 2008. Both my father and I have given countless talks and appearances in an effort to raise awareness about the importance of organ donation since the Foundation’s formation. I am sure the money paid to my father during those years barely covered his expenses. There is an abundance of public records demonstrating the work we have done promoting organ donation and working with the health care community and potential donors. If my opponents are trying to paint this as some sort of money-making venture instead of what it was – a foundation I was inspired to start on behalf of Ganelle – then they are gravely mistaken.

It has been an amazing experience to encourage members of our community to help one another. I have been awed by the hundreds of children I have met who are living today because someone willingly registered as an organ donor before they passed on. I have been proud to stand alongside hundreds of organ donation service workers and health experts who work every day to save the lives of thousands of Western New Yorkers.

I hope my opponents agree that we should not play politics with children’s lives. Organ donation is an important service that we can all sign up for. I proudly carry my own organ donor’s card, and I hope that through all the work over the years, we have inspired thousands of people to do the same.

Although I’m backing Iannello and sincerely hope she wins the primary next Tuesday, after what was done to Jon Powers and the denigration heaped upon War Kids Relief – a cause that was, is, and will be noble – I won’t play this particular game. Raising awareness for organ donation is a noble effort, and one that Mesi has clearly put a lot of effort into. No one was unjustly enriched by it, and there is no question that it is noble.

This is gutter politics in the same vein as the Hoyt email leaks, Davis’ swiftboating of War Kids Relief, and I am 100% sure that neither Iannello’s nor Ward’s camp released this information to Bean. I have no doubt that it was a Republican operative or that it was someone working on Ranzenhofer’s campaign. Consider to whom it was leaked.