Charity honors late Weinberg student

Daniel Gives Back has hosted four blood drives, saved 829 lives

By JOANNA HOU daily senior staffer @joannah_11

When Daniel Perelman applied for his driving permit in high school, he decided to become an organ donor.

“Nobody in our family was an organ donor, not because we have anything especially against it, but just because we never thought about this,” said Benny Perelman, Daniel Perelman’s dad. “He was thinking and saying, ‘This is an opportunity to do something in the remote possibility, right? Why not?’”

Daniel Perelman, formerly a Weinberg freshman, died in May after a plane crash in Wauwatosa,

Wisconsin. He was part of the Integrated Sciences Program and multiple clubs at Northwestern. Daniel Perelman, who planned to pursue medicine after graduation, also shadowed a cardiologist in Evanston once or twice a week, his dad said.

After his death, Daniel Perelman’s heart, liver and kidneys were donated to four people.

Benny Perelman said he and his wife, along with many of their friends, decided to become organ donors after seeing their son save lives. Daniel Perelman’s friends from NU would also occasionally message his family to tell them they registered for organ donation.

Rabbi Levi Brook of Chabad of Waukesha-Brookfield arranged his son’s funeral and service,

Benny Perelman said. Brook connected the family with Versiti, a non-profit that focuses on blood donation and research. In July, the

Chabad of Waukesha-Brookfield hosted its first blood drive in

» See PERELMAN, page 10