By: Paul Koepp
On the afternoon of May 2, Najeeb Green-Lewis was riding his scooter along the side of Watsontown-New Freedom Road in Winslow, on his way to buy ice cream sandwiches for his friends.
His grandmother, Monica Durell, of Berlin, said recently that if the 12-year-old former Monmouth Junction Elementary School and Crossroads South Middle School student had called to tell her of his plans, as he normally did, she might have given him a ride.
Instead, at about 2 p.m., he was struck by an alleged hit-and-run drunken driver who had a suspended license from multiple prior drunken driving offenses. Najeeb, who had just moved away from South Brunswick in November, died the next day.
Najeeb’s family wrestled at first with whether to donate his organs, but Ms. Durell said she is glad they chose to do so. A friend who needed a heart transplant had previously made her aware of the need for organ donors.
"I decided not to let (Najeeb’s) death be in vain," she said. "I didn’t want him to just be a statistic."
An estimated 6,000 people die each year while waiting for organs or tissue because only one-fourth of 1 percent of all Americans are registered organ donors when they die, according to the nonprofit New Jersey Organ and Tissue Sharing Network Web site. Just one donor of organs, bone marrow and other tissue can potentially save more than 50 lives, according to the Web site.
Because of the confidentiality agreements required by the sharing network, it is impossible to know with certainty the identity of the recipients of Najeeb’s organs.
However, the NJ Sharing Network did share some information with her. Najeeb’s liver was donated to a 55-year-old truck driver in Pennsylvania, Ms. Durell said. One of his kidneys went to a 61-year-old New Jersey man suffering from diabetes, and the other went to 30-year-old New Jersey man with lupus. All of the recipients are doing well, she said. His heart was also donated and used in a successful transplant surgery.
"Whoever got his heart has a good heart," Ms. Durell said.
Her family’s ordeal has made her into an advocate for organ donation.
"A lot of my friends have changed their status and changed their minds," she said. "That’s a definite plus."
She even convinced a UPS delivery man to become a donor after his fiancée hadn’t been able to get him to sign up.
Ms. Durell said she is comforted that through the donation of his organs, Najeeb will live on in more than his family’s memory and camcorder images from last Christmas.
"Who would’ve thought that would be his last Christmas?" she said. "He was my little angel."
She remembered her grandson as a playful and generous child.
"Whenever he had money, he would share with his friends and buy them ice cream or something," she said. "He never wanted for anything, but he was never too materialistic. Whatever you gave him, he was happy with it."
Najeeb played basketball in the South Brunswick Police Athletic League, and later became passionate about playing football.
Barry Nathanson, a South Brunswick school board member involved in the PAL, remembered Najeeb as a "sweet-spirited young man."
"Every one of his teammates liked him, and he was a true leader and loved to play both football and basketball and be around his friends," Mr. Nathanson said in an e-mail.
Ms. Durell said she wants to thank the South Brunswick community and schools for all their support.
"The community really pulled together for him," she said.
She didn’t realize until Najeeb died how many new friends he had made in Berlin since moving last year.
Students in Najeeb’s sixth-grade class at Winslow Township Middle School remembered him Wednesday morning during a ceremony in which they shared memoirs they have been writing for the last nine weeks.
Language arts teacher Maureen Grippen said the students decided to dedicate the event to Najeeb, and they presented a book of memories to his family. In addition, the students established a $600 scholarship, partly with money raised during lunch periods, to pay for sports equipment for one student each year, Ms. Grippen said.
"Apparently, Najeeb touched a lot of people. I didn’t know how many people’s lives he touched," Ms. Durell said.
She said the driver charged with aggravated manslaughter in connection with Najeeb’s death, Michael Repko, 38, of Winslow, should not have been on the road.
"The laws ought to be stiffer," she said. "It needs to be changed."
For more information on organ donation, log on to the NJ Sharing Network Web site at www.sharenj.org.

