The Lancaster native and Penguins fan was in desperate need of a kidney transplant. The normally reserved and private Sowatsky took a leap of faith. She attended a Penguins game against Montreal on March 31, 2018 with her plea inscribed on a sign: "Calling All Hockey Fans! I Need A Kidney! Kidney! Kidney! Gratefully Yours, Kelly."
Andi Perelman, who oversees the Penguins' social media, noticed the neon sign at the game. She tweeted a picture of Sowatsky holding her sign from the team's official handle. Other outlets picked up the story and it went viral.
Nearly 300 miles away in Delaware another Penguins fan, Jeff Lynd, saw the tweet and offered to donate his kidney. It took eight months for everything to come to fruition, but on Nov. 6 doctors at UPMC performed kidney transplant surgery.
Both Sowatsky and Lynd are doing well two weeks later.
Sowatsky now has a new, fully functioning kidney, as well as a 10-inch scar on her abdomen from the surgery. "It's a scar that tells a story," she said. "It's part of my story."
And that story is bigger than just any one individual. It's a story of the power of sports, social media and the bond of a fan base.
"There's no words to really express the gratitude and the way I feel about what (Lynd) did for me because he literally saved my life," Sowatsky said. "And the doctors, too. If you trickle it down, the Pittsburgh Penguins are the reason my life is being saved, too. If it weren't for (Perelman) and for me loving the Penguins ... "
Or, as Lynd put it: "She always cries and thanks me and I always tell her to thank Mario (Lemieux). If Mario didn't save the team then none of us would be here."
Lynd is a Bethel Park native and die-hard Penguin fan since birth, though he relocated after college. Sowatsky converted with the help of her fiancé Tyler Hart. The couple is "obsessed" with the team. And Sowatsky credits the Pens with helping her through some struggles.
"They got me through some really rough days in the last couple of years with how sick I felt," she said. "It didn't matter how bad I was feeling, I always felt better when I watched the Penguins play."
Sowatsky will have another chance to watch the Penguins play in the future as the team has invited Kelly and her family as well Lynd's family to attend an upcoming morning skate and game in a suite. The date hasn't been determined, pending final clearance from the doctors, but Sowatsky is excited nonetheless.
"I can't wait," Sowatsky said. "I'm so stoked. I never dreamed that this would lead to anything that is about to happen. I'm going to fangirl so hard that it's probably not going to be funny. I'm obsessed with the Pens."
Sowatsky, 31, and Lynd, 35, have a unique bond with the team. It was their mutual love of the Penguins that brought them together: the Penguins, a handmade sign, a tweet and fate.
"There are no words," said Jackie Sowatsky, Kelly's mother. "It's just mindboggling for me as a parent, as her mom, her caregiver that a simple sign did so much for Kelly. And that the Pittsburgh Penguins actually caught the sign and made the information available. For her to get a donor off of that sign, I get choked up every time I think about it.
"It's a miracle."