Heart Transplant Recipient Throws First Pitch For Hornets After First Meeting With Young Donor’s Family

Valley Center Community Celebrates Gift That Gave 11-Year-Old Luka McDonald A New heart

USA: The Valley Center community turned out in force as 11-year-old heart transplant recipient Luka McDonald, who lives in Pennsylvania, threw the ceremonial first pitch for the Hornets and met the family of his donor for the first time in person. The donor, nine-year-old Valley Center student Jason Jones, died following a medical emergency in 2024 and his organs were procured to help multiple recipients.

The connection that brought the families together began when Jason’s mother, Jennifer Jones, began painting rocks with warm messages and QR codes that share Jason’s story. A Valley Center baseball coach found one of those rocks on the Hornets field, which helped bring Luka’s mother, Ashley Fazzino, and their supporters to town. Hundreds attended, many wearing shirts bearing the phrase Love Big as a tribute to Jason’s legacy.

Medically, the occasion underscored the life-changing power of organ donation and transplantation: Jason’s heart now beats in Luka’s chest, and Jason also donated organs that went to three other recipients. Fazzino reached out to the Jones family while Luka was still in the hospital to express gratitude and to let them know their child’s gift was giving another family a future.

What began as private grief has become a public testament to community, connection and purpose. The meeting in Valley Center celebrated not only a successful heart transplant but also a ripple of lives saved and changed — a legacy many there described simply as an invitation to love big.

Video originally published on 2026-04-16 23:34:32