Families honor daughters by giving back to community
BUTLER TWP — Emily Leyland and Sarah Kasunic still are finding ways to make the world they left too soon a better place. Even after their deaths, the young women have found a way to inspire hope and bring the best out of the community.
Keeping Emily and Sarah journey to serve others is a way for the families to keep the their legacies alive.
“Someone once told me that in this world we die twice,” said Hank Leyland, father of Emily. “Once in a physical death and the second time is the last time your name was spoken on this earth.”
The families of Emily and Sarah along with the All Saints Parish church are hosting the second annual Twilight 5K on July 28. Proceeds will be used to fund the “Sarah Kasunic and Emily Leyland Scholarship” while also spreading awareness advocating for organ and blood donations.
While working closely with both families through the difficult time, pastor of All Saints Parish, the Rev. Kevin Fazio came up with the fundraising idea to honor Emily and Sarah who were parishioners of All Saints Parish and graduates of Butler Catholic School.
“I just thought why don’t we do something to keep their names alive, to keep their memories alive, to continue to give their families hope,” Fazio has said. “They’re both beautiful families.”
Last year’s the race raised about $20,000. The proceeds went toward sending students to Butler Catholic School, according to Fazio.
With education being on of the many passions that Sarah appreciated in life, setting up a scholarship in her name seems inevitably poetic.
“I’m just so happy right now, things are just going great,” Sarah wrote in her journal before her graduation from Butler County Community College in 2016. “I’m finally graduating and I’ll be done with schoolwork for a while until I go back someday. I can’t believe I’m actually going to be free for the summer and I can enjoy life. I can’t wait to make the most of it.”
Emily who died in 2013 after a two-and-a-half-year battle with leukemia, was known for her generosity and carefully crafted words that inspired leadership.
She also had a talent of being a great listener, according to her mother, Terry Leyland.
Which translated into her being a “great gift giver,” according to Terry.
“If she would have met you once, just from a single conversation she would have known what your interests were,” Terry said. “And if she was out and about and found something she thought would make a good gift for like a birthday or something, she would pick it up.”
Being able to provide the gift of both education and life is one of the ways that Emily’s presence echo’s in this life.
Even if she would have been embarrassed to have such a big deal being made on her behalf.
“She was probably be going like ‘oh my goooshh’” Terry said laughing and rolling her eyes, in an apparent impersonation of her daughter.
And while the scholarship is the catalyst for the race, both young women were impassioned about spreading awareness for donating blood and organs.
Even before Sarah’s death from a traffic accident in March 2019, she was a strong advocate for organ donations. Her infectious enthusiasm that drove all avenues of her life was enough to convince her mother, Margaret Kasunic, to become an organ donor.
“She had that designation on her licenses, and I didn’t,” Margaret said. “She called me up, called me out on it, and asked me ‘Why not?’ I didn’t know. She educated me and told me why it was a good thing.”
According to the United Network for Organ Sharing, nearly 42,000 people were given a second chance at life last year because of organ transplants.
Sarah, whose mother described her as being “fully alive” is able to share her vigor for life with the advocacy for organ donations.
Emily realized the importance of blood transfusions first hand when she received them on a regular basis during her treatments. Emily’s parents were told that the first round of leukemia treatments required between 30 and 60 unit of blood.
Emily also had two stem cell transplants, one from her brother and another from a stranger.
“Those were two things that she was very adamant about,” Terry said. “Blood donations and stem cell transplants.
The Red Cross estimates that every two seconds someone in the United States needs blood and or platelets, which equates to about 29,000 units of red blood cells.
The death of the two women entering the prime of their lives is nothing less than a tragedy, but due to the strength of the families, the potential that two women had on making this world a better place did not end when they took their last breaths.
“What she did in life it just continues to go on,” Hank Leyland said. “Those ripples are still going, she had that kind of impact on the people around her.”
Sarah’s father, Tom Kasunic echo’s those sentiments and draws inspiration from the last phone conversation he had with his daughter.
“She’s in her apartment down in Knoxville,” Tom said. “And we’re talking and she says ‘stop, there's a beautiful sunset out there. I need a minute to take it in.”
Registration for the Twilight 5K on July 28 can be found on the All Saints Parish website.
