LVHN COMMUNITY PARTNER
Bill and Christine Hankee work every day to keep their daughter’s memory alive.
By Jim Marsh  Special to the Lehigh Valley Press Press

Through a charitable foundation they formed after the death of their daughter in 2007, retired Parkland School District teachers Bill and Chris Hankee, of Germansville, work every day to keep memories of their late daughter, Krysta, alive. “Krysta was an exceptional child,” her mother said. ”She was always looking for ways to help other people.”

“What we are doing is just a reflection of who she was,” Bill Hankee said.

Krysta collapsed while exercising before work in a gym in New York City in September 2007, at the age of 22. She died a few days later.

Krysta graduated in 2003 from Northwestern Lehigh High School, where she excelled as a student and an athlete.

Jason Zimmerman, director of athletics and student activities at Northwestern Lehigh High School, remembers Krysta warmly.

“My fondest memory, and what I will always remember about Krysta, is how much of a leader she was. Not only was she outstanding on the athletic field and in the classroom, but she always did what was right, instead of what was popular,” Zimmerman said.

After graduating from Northwestern Lehigh, Krysta attended The American University in Washington, D.C., for two years, where she was a Patriot League scholar-athlete.

She transferred for her junior and senior college years to the Leonard N. Stern School of Business at New York University in New York, N.Y., where she graduated in 2007 with a degree in marketing and foreign business.

Upon graduation, Krysta worked as an assistant project manager at Triangle Equities in Whitestone, N.Y., until her tragic death.

She was hospitalized following her collapse, but Krista’s brain had been without oxygen for about eight minutes from the time she collapsed until paramedics arrived. That is a circumstance the human brain cannot survive.

When it became evident Krysta could not recover, her parents considered donating her organs to help others. Krysta’s wishes became clear when her parents discovered she had placed the organ donor designation on her Pennsylvania driver’s license.

After her death, Krysta became an instant hero to five people she never knew.

Her donated corneas gave sight to two blind people, and she renewed the lives of another five  people through the donation of her lungs, pancreas and kidneys. She also helped 51 burn victims with skin patch donations through the New York Firefighters Skin Bank.

“It took two days to arrange the transplants because Krysta had a rare blood type,” Bill Hankee said. “While we were sitting there in New York, a friend of ours said, ‘You can’t let it end like this.’“

That comment put in motion the determination for Bill and Chris to create the Krysta Hankee Memorial Foundation, a charitable nonprofit that has helped an untold number of people in need, in partnership with other charitable organizations.

The foundation began its family service initiative with a golf outing at Pleasant Hills Golf Course, in Fleetwood, and several other golf outings have taken place since that time.

That initial outing raised $1,000 and was the start of the Miles That Matter program.

Since then, more than $260,000 has been raised and hundreds of families have benefited from Giant food store gift cards. Using federal statistics regarding average vehicle gas mileage, Bill Hankee has calculated the gift cards equate to about 2.5 million “miles that matter.”

The program is simple and without any red tape for those who benefit. The memorial foundation provides the gas cards to more than 30 hospitals and family service agencies.

If social workers see a need, they can just give out a card to help defray expenses. No applications, no registration or record-keeping – just Krysta Hankee’s “how can I help you” attitude.

Since 2008, the foundation has also provided 62 scholarships to Northwestern Lehigh School District and Lehigh Carbon Community College students and to others with special medical-related needs.

When considering the Giant gift cards, the scholarships and special needs Krysta’s memorial foundation has met, the total raised and dispersed totals more than $400,000.

Neither Chris nor Bill accept attention for what they do; it’s all about Krysta.

At a presentation Chris made recently on behalf of the memorial foundation, Krysta’s proud mom said, “It’s my honor to be able to continue talking positively about my daughter 13 years after her death.”

For more information about the foundation, go to krystahankeememorialfund.org.

Or, just Google Krysta’s name, and see the full page of references that pop up.