This event was founded as and continues to serve as a memorial to Winnie Hesse, along with every other organ donor, living and deceased, who made the selfless decision to share their life with others in need.

Winnie Hesse was a lifelong Topekan, a Washburn University alumna and a popular elementary school teacher who devoted herself to many children in the Topeka community, in addition to her own five children. Winnie was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in 1991 and advised that without a heart transplant she had only about one year to live. After learning that transplant procedures were not covered by her family insurance, members of Topeka Organ Transplant Organization (TOTO) and many other members of the Topeka community rallied to support Winnie, her husband Paul, and their children with numerous fund-raisers so that Winnie could be placed on a waiting list to receive a transplant.

Although her physical condition worsened, Winnie traveled to Washington D.C. in January, 1993 to testify before a Senate subcommittee regarding the insurance predicament she, her family and many other Americans were facing. Shortly after her 49th birthday, and three years after her initial diagnosis, Winnie died, on December 15, 1994. Even though she did not receive the gift she and her family had anxiously awaited, Winnie shared her life with many others by donating her corneas, skin, tissue and bones to others who were also waiting. Knowing that Winnie lives on through her gifts has helped to ease the loss that her family and friends continue to endure.