29th Annual National Kidney Foundation of Utah & Idaho Golf Tournament

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https://www.ksl.com/?sid=46347179&nid=294&title=college-football-talking-season-is-here-but-first-the-coaches-go-golfing

For 29 years, the coaching staffs at BYU and Utah have come together in June to support the National Kidney Foundation of Utah and Idaho for a charity golf event raising thousands of dollars annually for the publicly funded nonprofit organization.

 

But with new NCAA legislation extending the recruiting period into June and both schools offering seven-on-seven camps deep into the summer, both BYU coach Kalani Sitake and Utah’s Kyle Whittingham had plenty of conflicts.

Neither one of them wanted to miss the event Monday, though — Sitake even got a speeding ticket as he drove from Provo to Hidden Valley County Club in Sandy to arrive in time for the annual luncheon.

“Even coaches get speeding tickets,” Sitake quipped.

Monday’s luncheon was appointment viewing for Whittingham, too. Even without the obligation of the losing coach singing the opposing school’s fight song.

“June is a lot more busy for coaches than it used to be, with the satellite camps and more official visits in June,” he said. “It’s a lot different than it once was, but I just have to make time for this.”

The event began with legendary BYU coach LaVell Edwards and has brought together every coach in the rivalry since, including Utah’s Ron McBride — still seated at the center table, across from Sitake and next to former BYU and NFL tight end Chad Lewis.

To Sitake’s right sat Whittingham, laughing like a buddy-cop duo of former coaching colleagues who played at the same school and coached together at a rival institution.

In those 29 years, the group has raised funds to help the roughly 468,000 Americans with kidney disease who are receiving dialysis treatment or the 1,316 people from Utah and Idaho currently awaiting a life-saving organ transplant.

“It’s the cause that matters, and I’m honored to be affiliated with it for so many years,” Whittingham said, “as well as coach McBride before that, and I think even coach (Jim) Fassel before him. It does a lot of good for the National Kidney Foundation, and I’m honored to be a part of it.”

While getting ready for a season where the Utes look to build off the only successful postseason in Pac-12 football, and as the Cougars try to turn things around from last year’s disastrous 4-9 campaign, it was good to take time away from the grind of 24/7 college football.

The rest will come soon enough.

“You go through these parts where you know it’s around the corner,” Sitake said. “The hardest part is vacation; you need to take time off. But if everything is done correctly, I think we will be ready. I’ll spend some time with the family in July, but right now, I’m pleased with how hard everyone is working — especially the players.”

 

Thank you Letter from Grateful Idaho Kidney Patient

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This is a thank you letter from a local Idaho kidney patients thanking the National Kidney Foundation of Utah & Idaho for our patient services.
so, by extension thank you to everyone who has ever donated a car in Utah or Idaho to www.towKars.org
To Whom it may Concern:
Please accept my sincere thank and deep appreciation for your assistance with my Idaho Power bill.
As I have been on dialysis for over six years, and am 67 years old, I am only able to work a few hours each week.  The old doublewide mobile home where I live is inexpensive to rent, but the heating bills from November through April each year are very, very expensive.  Without your kind assistance, I would not be able to pay my power bills for these months.  I try to pay down my balance, but I end up still owing hundreds of dollars every year in May.  Honestly, without your support and assistance, I would very likely be homeless by now. I truly thank you from the bottom of my heart.
With deepest appreciation,
Sincerely,
F.A. Self

Me, doing taxes without a CPA

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Right?  lol.  I hope you all got your Kidney Kars tax deduction from www.towKars.org before you filed your 2017 tax return.

April 17, 2017 is Tax Day. The National Kidney Foundation of Utah and Idaho has received close to 3,000 Kidney Kars donations this year.  In the past 3 weeks, we’ve had 150 requests Kidney Kars Donors asking for their tax receipts.  Many call or write us angrily accusing us of never sending their tax receipts.  Almost 98% of the time the receipt was in fact, already sent (time stamped by our database, and our email server).  However, 50% of the time, the receipt was emailed to a bogus or junk mail email account, that the donors themselves provided at the onset of the donation process. The other 48% of missing tax receipts made their way into spam (because of our .org address) or was straight up overlooked and then deleted by the donor.

I have no problem with junk email addresses.  I have one (don’t we all?). But if you want a TAX RECEIPT for your charitable contribution, consider giving your ACTUAL email address for a start.  The National Kidney Foundation of Utah & Idaho promises never to send junk mail. But I understand. There are a lot of charities that send a lot of additional promotions or continued appeals.  I guess Kidney Kars donations are the exception to that rule.  We’ve so carefully guarded the email addresses and pledged to use them only for tax purposes.   Anyway, to all of those who donated their car to Kidney Kars of Utah & Idaho for a tax deduction, we hope you get a tax return or that your payment to the IRS was not too painful.  Most specifically, we hope your Kidney Kars donation (free towing, tax deductible!) helped lower your tax liability.  So on behalf of the 3,000 Utah and Idaho kidney patients who benefit from the health and human medical financial services our programs provide, we thank you!

Donate a Kidney, Donate a Car, Both Save Lives

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The National Kidney Foundation of Utah & Idaho partners with Yes Utah! and Yes Idaho!

Organ Donor registry to promote organ donation. As of today, nearly 114,000 people are on the transplant waiting list, and over 2/3 of those on the list need kidneys, so organ donation is very important to the National Kidney Foundation. Kidney disease has no cure, only dialysis treatments or a kidney transplant. We opt for the latter if the patient qualifies and is healthy enough for a transplant. If you are interested in becoming a kidney donor in Utah, please visit https://www.yesutah.org/ or in Idaho at https://www.yesidaho.org/

In the meantime, donating your old car for a tax deduction (and free towing) to the National Kidney Foundation of Utah and Idaho is how we can continue to lighten the burden, and improve the quality of life for Utah and Idaho kidney patients while they await a life saving kidney.  So donate a kidney, donate a car, both save lives.  Donate your old car online to Kidney Kars at https://www.towKars.org

Elder Dale G. Renlund Shares Story of Faith About Organ Donation

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On Saturday, March 31st LDS General Conference, LDS Church Authority, Elder Dale G. Renlund, a cardiologist shared a beautiful experience about a family’s faith and experience regarding organ donation. We will post the transcript when it is available.  We’ve attached the link to the talk.

https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2018/04/media/session_2_talk_12/5761587735001?lang=eng

 

 

 

Angel Elsie Saving Lives

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Elsie’s Miracle

April 1st between sessions of the LDS General Conference, KSL ran a 25 minute special about our Angel Family, The Mahes. Three years ago, 3 year old Elsie Mahe’s life was cut short after a tragic accident in the family home, but her legacy lives on. The Mahe family says while they didn’t receive their miracle for Elsie, there were many miracles from Elsie. Elsie’s organs were donated to save many lives, but the miracles go far beyond this.  Her  sparkle and spirit of a little girl have helped to spread faith, love and kindness across the globe. Check here for the beautiful, brave story of what the Mahe’s chose to do in the face of unspeakable sadness at the loss of their beautiful daughter.

https://www.ksl.com/?sid=46290539&nid=1016

Kidney Transplant Recipient Helped Enact Landmark Idaho legislation

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Today the Naional Kidney Foundation of Utah & Idaho received the pen that Governor Butch Otter used to sign this bill!We are very grateful to our Idaho friends who saw this very important piece of legislation through.

Landmark Legislation Signed by Idaho Governor to Protect Living Organ Donors
Legislation is first of its kind in the nation
March 20, 2018

The National Kidney Foundation of Utah and Idaho is pleased to announce that Idaho Governor Butch Otter signed landmark legislation, S. 1302, to protect living organ donors from potential insurance discrimination. Too often living organ donors, who are healthier than the U.S. population at large, face insurance discrimination based solely on their
status as a living organ donor. “Today’s legislation in Idaho is the first of its kind in the nation designed to stop such discrimination. We hope soon every state in the nation follows suit. We were pleased to support the work of Marty Durand, an Idaho kidney transplant recipient and lawyer, who initiated the hearings on this bill” said Deen Vetterli, CEO National Kidney Foundation of Utah & Idaho.
The Idaho legislation, S. 1302, makes it unlawful to discriminate in the offering, issuance, cancellation, price or conditions of a policy, including the amount of coverage provided, based solely upon the status of the individual as a living organ
donor. The National Kidney Foundation of Utah & Idaho applauds Governor Otter for standing up for kidney patients, 100,000 of whom are waiting on a life-saving transplant right now.
The National Kidney Foundation of Utah & Idaho thanks Idaho State Senator Cherie Buckner-Webb for sponsoring the bill and owes a debt of gratitude to Committee leaders in the Senate and House for their efforts in support of organ donation. In 2017, nearly 20,000 Americans received a kidney transplant and one-third of these transplants were made possible by living donors.
Expanding living donation by removing barriers will help more people obtain a life-saving transplant. Organ donors undergo significant testing prior to being approved as a donor and must be in very good overall health before being permitted to donate. Most donors do not experience long term complications related to organ donation and therefore insurance discrimination is unjustified.
The Idaho legislation is modeled after The Living Donor Protection Act, introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives in March 2017 by Representative Jerry Nadler (D-NY) and Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler

https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/national-kidney-foundation-statement-on-landmark-legislation-signed-by-idaho-governor-to-protect-living-organ-donors-300616897.html

 

Utah Man has used bionic hand to restore cars since 1957.

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Anyone who knows me knows, I grew up with no less than 8 cars on our 2 acre lot in East County San Diego.  My Dad was a part time VW/Audi/Porsche mechanic.  I grew up driving anything from a diesel Ford Ranchero, to a 1967 VW Bug to a 1978 Porche 930 Turbo Carrera.  I spent most of my childhood getting dragged to wrecking yards and swap meets looking for certain car parts or tools.  When my Dad died, we found ourselves weeping over his most prized possessions: a Suzuki Hyabusa engine and 50 gallon drum of nitro fuel.  So I loved reading this story about Delwyn Friedl on KSL.  He reminded me of my Dad, if my Dad had been a superhero who had a hook for a hand since he was 18. Delwyn was working at animal feed company when he was 18.  He was trying to free up a jammed auger machine when his arm was pulled into the machinery. He lost the arm between the wrist and elbow. He has worked with the hook since 1957.  While my Dad grew up in SoCal racing and crashing cars through the orange groves, Delwyn Friedl grew up in Utah racing and crashing cars on the Bonneville Salt Flats. While my Dad built his first race car at 14 out of an old Model A using a chevy 350 engine, In high school, Friedl built his own hot rod by putting a Hemi engine into a Model A Roadster.  From there Mr. Friedly became a serious car builder/restorer. He estimates he has fixed up between 50 and 60 cars over the years. He still has about 10, including an original-built Buick (so says the title) powered by two Buick V-8 engines connected together. He said he’s driven it up to 120 miles per hour and it’s “real smooth.” He has built Model T’s, Model A’s, a salt flats racer and a ’60s convertible. His garage is full of beautiful cars, but none of them came in that way. He estimates he puts in about 1,000 hours on a typical restoration, and he does it all single-handed.

 

This makes me miss my Dad.  His last car races were in Tecate and San Felipe Baja California in a modified mini Mustang he named the Baby Grand.  I keep up the Kidney Kars program for the National Kidney Foundation of Utah and Idaho, because in 1991 I was the only person in Utah who had a background in fundraising, grant writing and also experience parting/recycling/reselling cars. Today, the Kidney Kars of Utah & Idaho car donation program at towKars.org is still one of the country’s largest car donation programs.  I’m so proud to run the Kidney Kars program.  I was so happy to be the daughter of someone who loved cars.  It was fun. And to this day, my kids play a game on road trips called “what’s the year, make and model?” I’m pretty darn good at this game, if I do say so myself.

Anyway, as I get older myself my health, my knees my body has failed me in lots of way.  Reading this story about Mr. Friedly inspired me.  He lost his hand at 18 and didn’t let that deter him at all. If you love something, there is always a way to make it part of you.  I hope to be as mentally and emotionally resourceful one day as a one armed mechanics, and the kidney patients who survive kidney disease in Utah and Idaho. Kidney Patients rely upon the services of the National Kidney Foundation of Utah & Idaho. So please donate your old car to www.towKars.org or (801) 226-5111. Kidney Kars donations are tax deductible and towing is free.  So please,don’t just junk your old car!  Help us to lighten the burden and improve the quality of life for Utah and Idaho kidney patients!  Donate online at https://www.towKars.org

March is Kidney Month in Utah & Idaho — so donate your car to Kidney Kars!

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March is Kidney Month so the National Kidney Foundation of Utah and Idaho will be posting public service announcements throughout the month about kidney health and of course about donating an old car for a tax deduction to the Kidney Kars program.  Because the funds raised from the Kidney Kars and www.towKars.org fund local kidney dialysis and transplant patient services its really a great way to combine both public information and a fundraising campaign.  I love the memes that the National Kidney Foundation came up with to post on Facebook.  Go ahead and scroll through them to get to know your Kidney better!  After you do, don’t hestatate to call us at 1-800-Tow-Kars or visit us at www.towKars.org to donate your old car to keep the ball rolling on kidney health.  You Kidney Kars donation lightens the burden and improves the quality of life for over 3,000 Utah and Idaho kidney patients!  So #HeartYourKidneys everybody — it’s #MarchisKidneyMonth