Organ Donation is Personal to Miss Florida Contestant

January 2022:

When she is asked how to pronounce her name, Casana Fink’s reply is a little fruity.

“It’s Casana, rhymes with banana,” she quips.

Ask the 23-year-old University of Florida graduate about her passion for promoting organ, eye and tissue donation as the reigning Miss Gainesville 2022, and she gets real, fast.

“Parents just don’t really want their children to know about death and maybe one day becoming an organ donor,” Casana said. “Unfortunately, people really shy away from that.”

Educating Florida’s youth is why Casana chose to partner with Donate Life Florida.  By going public with her family’s private donation story, she hopes to improve the lives of others who are waiting for organ transplants and increase their chances of a happy ending.

Some contestants enter pageants for the glitz and glamour of winning a title. Casana is attracted to the life of service that comes with wearing the crown. Her compassion and her platform are inspired by her parents, Jim and Selena Fink.

Casana was just 14 years old and a freshman at Forest High School in Ocala, Fla., when her father did not show up to work one day. A family member discovered Jim lying unconscious on his bed and took him to a nearby hospital.

“We were told he was within an hour of dying,” Casana said.

Jim was diagnosed with liver failure. He spent months in and out of intensive care units. Doctors said he would need a new liver if he was going to survive. He was placed on the national transplant waiting list and eventually received a liver transplant at Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.

“At first doctors did not think he was going to make it,” Casana said.

Not only did Jim survive, but he is thriving. The Finks live in Ocala where Casana was born and raised. Jim co-owns a real estate appraisal company with his brother, and Selena works as a healthcare advocate.

“That was almost eight years ago,” Casana said. “It was such a long journey rehabilitating him and getting him back to living a normal life.”

Humbled by the experience, Casana said her family relied on the generosity of others for stability and to help make ends meet. She spent hours hanging out at the Mary Ellen School of Dance, where she attended classes after school each day. Friends and extended family organized meals and kept Casana company while her father was in recovery and her mother worked long hours.

“The dance community really came together for us,” she said.

Casana credits her mother with keeping the family afloat during a difficult time. In addition to taking care of the household, Selena worked two jobs and advocated tirelessly on Jim’s behalf. Once she even insisted on meeting with hospital executives to help steer his quality of care.

“It’s incredible all the things my mom did at that time,” Casana said. “She basically shielded me from all of this. Looking back as an adult, it makes me kind of emotional. It is why I became so passionate to assist donor families and recipient families with their needs.”

In spite of all the hardship, Casana said she feels blessed and believes her family is fortunate.

“So many other families don’t have that financial security to fall back on, and it makes things so much more difficult,” she said.

Her mother’s strength and her father’s will to survive motivated Casana to found Give to Live – Donate Life, a nonprofit focused on promoting organ donation.  She is working with Florida House Representative Joe Harding on two initiatives that would help promote Florida’s donor registry. She is also writing a children’s book about organ donation.

“I hope to make the conversation about donation more digestible and comprehensible, not so scary,” Casana said.

Prior to competing in the Miss Gainesville scholarship competition, Casana took some time for herself. She attended Conde’ Nast College of Fashion & Design in London and spent time working in New York City.

“I was missing that sense of philanthropy,” she said. “Something so amazing about the Miss America Organization is that they prioritize public service.”

Winning the Miss Gainesville title qualifies Casana to compete in the Miss Florida competition on June 25 in Lakeland. If she is fortunate to win the state title, it would mean another year in the spotlight and an even bigger audience to promote her organ donation platform.

For now, Casana is focused on fulfilling her duties as Miss Gainesville. From speaking engagements and writing books to encouraging sales of the new Donate Florida specialty license plate, she is seizing every opportunity to inform others about the beautiful Gift of Life.

“The basis of what it means to be a donor and to be a transplant community starts with education,” Casana said. “Weeding out those myths, promoting the positives and hearing those stories of transplant recipients and donor families. It all starts with funding, which comes in part from the sale of the license plate. I think it is so important to get to the goal of pre-selling 3,000.”

Donate Life Florida Specialty License Plates can be purchased online by anyone in Florida through the St. Lucie County Tax Collector’s office at: https://pay-hub.net/stlucie/donatelife/vouchers or in person at any tax collector office.