50K IN 50 Days Corporate Challenge - Kidneys For Kids Grant Fund
(This Is Our Campaign We Introduced In The Bay City, Saginaw, and Midland, Michigan areas This Week. We invite you to participate from wherever you are!)
This is Brian Martindale, the executive director of Kidneys For Kids and a living kidney donor. In 2022, I founded Kidneys For Kids-a 5013c non- profit based in Bay City,Michigan
Kidneys For Kids purpose and mission, is to give assistance to families with children who have kidney disease, or need a kidney transplant. Kidneys For Kids will reimburse families for costs of their child’s kidney treatment, prescription costs, costs of special foods or therapies, or transplant costs which are not covered by insurance such as lodging, meals or transportation costs. Reimbursement will be limited to amounts of $1000.00 per year. There is no income limit to qualify for a micro-grant from Kidneys For Kids. Our grant amounts will increase once $50,000 or more in initial funding is secured, and new grant limits are approved by our board of directors. Kidneys For Kids will also provide financial assistance in the same manner, for adults within the state of Michigan who are battling kidney disease, or going through kidney transplant. Kidneys For Kids also advocates to help find kidney donors for children and adults, with the kind assistance of local and national media.
On Febuary 1st, we began our drive to raise $50,000 in 50 days; so, we may provide financial assistance to families, as well as Michigan adults battling kidney disease or going through kidney transplant. The following pages will provide your bank, credit union, or business with the information of how many children and adults are affected by kidney disease in Michigan, and across the United States, and how your tax-deductible contributions to our campaign will give hope and a small amount of relief from the financial burdens of living with kidney disease, or going through a kidney transplant. Our challenge will recognize every contributor, and present a commemorative plaque for-
The first donation to our 50-day campaign, and the largest donation to our campaign from each of the following- A Bank, A Credit Union, a Business. and the Healthcare field. We thank you in advance!
The Problem:
Kidney disease is a growing epidemic that affects millions in
the United States, including over one million adults and children
in Michigan- that’s one in seven people! And 47 million
nationwide. Many people with kidney disease struggle with daily
tasks, and the financial burden of treatments and medications can
be overwhelming. Kidneys For Kids works to ease that burden, and
provide financial support to families with a child battling kidney
disease nationally, as well as adults throughout Michigan
How Can Your Organization Help?
We are reaching out to you today, because we need your help to begin our work. Kidneys For Kids was formed in May of 2022 as an idea for a 48 state mission to recruit 100 adult kidney donors for 100 children. That advocating mission will continue this May, but Kidneys For Kids is now fully a 5013c non-profit; whose base mission is to provide financial assistance to families and individuals, who have costs not covered by insurance for which they have no other means to pay. This is our initial funding campaign, and your business or organizations kind donation will allow us to fund our first grants to families and individuals ahead of foundation grants- which will only be obtained after Kidneys For Kids can show we are carrying out our mission to give our promised assistance from our mission statement. As you know, being a new non-profit, we have to show we can create donations to our mission,before we will receive major grant funding.
And that is what your kind donation will do for many families and individuals who are battling to financially survive, as well as physically.
As you read in our mission statement, there are many needs created by kidney disease for families with a child, or in Michigan a child or an adult. that Kidneys For Kids Micro-Grant program will help to alleviate the financial stress they experience. And provide at the outset a small amount of relief.
And as Kidneys For Kids grows, the size of our grants will grow with us until we can fully help with the cost of a kidney transplant not covered by insurance.
So our question to you today is will your bank, credit union, or business kindly accept this challenge; and lead the charge to 50K with your generous tax deductible donation? Will your team be the first to answer this challenge? Will your team be the largest supporter in your category (Banks, Credit Unions, Businesses), Healthcare?
We want to thank you in advance for supporting Kidneys For Kids! Your organizations generosity will help us make a real difference in the lives of those affected by kidney disease. Below, you will find Tv and Newspaper interview about the Kidneys For Kids story,as well as how I became a living kidney donor, and my recipients personal account of how kidney donation changed and saved her life. You may contact myself, or our board treasurer Tracey Libbrecht to schedule an in-person presentation of this campaign (if you are in Michigan), or a zoom interview .
Sincerely, Brian Martindale-Executive Director
Kidneys For Kids
1321 Broadway -Suite 300
Bay City, Mi. 48708
(989) 493-6111
Tracey Libbrecht- Treasurer (989) 220-7724
Jessica's Story:
Early in 2012, my mother and I found out I was in end- stage renal failure after I started having severe backaches. After going through many tests with our family doctor, my mother and I were informed that I would need a kidney transplant, or I would have to start dialysis soon. I was 10 years old at the time, and I became very scared knowing soon I would have to have a port for dialysis surgically placed in my arm or chest so I could receive a dialysis treatment 3 times per week. At that time, there were no pediatric centers for dialysis near our city, so my mom would have to drive me almost 100 miles for treatment three times per week. I was already starting to miss a lot of school days feeling sick, which gave me too much time to think about what I would be going through soon, if I was not approved to enter a transplant program, I would be on dialysis, and miss too much school to move past 4th grade. It is a lot for a 10-year-old mind to handle, but I am lucky to have such a caring mother, family members, and good friends who all kept my spirits up.
Little did I know my mother was so desperate to find me a living kidney donor, as she could not bear the thought of losing me. She knew if I received a kidney from a living person, that I had a better chance of not rejecting it, and that a living kidney has an average life span of almost 3 times over a kidney from a deceased person. So, in September of 2012, my mom decided one day to make a sign on a big pink piece of construction paper, and she went to the busiest corner in our town. She stood there for hours, the sign saying-Help Please, “My Daughter Needs A Kidney, She’s 10 Years Old, I Cannot Lose Her”. She received many offers of money, but no amount of money can buy a kidney, it must be given freely. Her effort gained the attention of our local newspaper, and Tv station. We had no idea that a man who had called us about two days after the stories appeared, would actually get tested to see if he was a match for me. It wasn’t until the day before Thanksgiving that we were notified that my mother’s effort had found my hero. Mom and I screamed so loud, that Brian should have heard us, as at the time we only lived 4 blocks apart but had never met. Brian, my mom, and I were introduced in December by a former CNN reporter, who wanted to record a short documentary on kidney donation. Then on January 10th, 2013, Brian, mom, and I rode together in a donated limousine to the University of Michigan Transplant Center, and the next day Brian’s kidney was removed in the main hospital, and brought over to C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, where my surgical team placed his kidney into my stomach pouch- that’s where donated kidneys go. The kidney, which was now mine immediacy started to function, and 2 days later, Brian was wheeled over to see me, and we were reunited. I was now full of color, I could eat all of the foods that had been restricted from my diet, and I was able to go home within 6 days. Brian and I both made full recoveries, and because of his donation which in the end saved my life, I am now 20 years old, healthy, in college at Eastern Michigan University, and serving on the board of directors for Kidneys For Kids, the non- profit Brian founded last year. We hope that your organization or business will be inspired by my and our story, and how it has turned into a mission to help eventually thousands of people who battle kidney disease or are going through transplant, and now become a major donor to our campaign!
Thank you, Jessica Schwerin- Kidneys For Kids
Media Links-
https://www.wjtv.com/living-local/focused-on-health/kidneys-for-kids-kicks-off-national-tour/
https://www.wlbt.com/video/2022/09/12/kidneys-kids/
https://www.wnem.com/2022/09/16/bay-city-man-taking-advocacy-kidneys-kids-across-country/
https://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/2012/09/bay_city_girl_jessica_schwerin.html
https://www.mlive.com/news/bay-city/2013/01/10_year-old_jessica_schwerin_a.html
https://nbc25news.com/news/local/burt-watson-chevy-donates-car-to-kidneys-for-kids
https://www.wnem.com/video/2022/04/04/bay-city-woman-needs-new-kidney-searching-
https://www.wsls.com/news/local/2023/01/21/kidneys-for-kids-hopes-to-find-kidney-donor-for-lynchburg-toddler/
Mission Statement
Kidneys For Kids purpose and mission, is to give assistance to families with children who have kidney disease, or need a kidney transplant. Kidneys For Kids will reimburse families for costs of their child’s kidney treatment, prescription costs, costs of special foods or therapies, or transplant costs which are not covered by insurance such as lodging, meals or transportation costs. Reimbursement will be limited to amounts of $1000.00 per year. There is no income limit to qualify for a micro-grant from Kidneys For Kids. Our grant amounts will increase once $50,000 or more in initial funding is secured, and new grant limits are approved by our board of directors. Kidneys For Kids will also provide financial assistance in the same manner, for adults within the state of Michigan who are battling kidney disease, or going through kidney transplant. Kidneys For Kids also advocates to help find kidney donors for children and adults, with the kind assistance of local and national media
