2024 Reflection: A Year In Review with Dragonfly
We’ve made it to the holiday season. What a year, what a year! Like the dragonfly, there are moments of the year when we’ve moved forward, some moments where we’ve moved backward, and even some moments where we stayed in place. Since Deb and I founded The Dragonfly Transplant Fund in 2017, we’ve watched the fund grow and help us move forward in our mission to enhance the need for organ and tissue donor awareness and to help support transplant patients and their families and caregivers during the transplant experience. 2024 is no exception to this movement!
Here are a few highlights we’d like to share…
The 7th Annual Dragonfly Transplant Fund Golf Outing & Fundraiser was the biggest and best yet! Over $65,000 was raised in August 2024 at Blue Top Ridge Golf Course in Riverside, Iowa.
Over the last three years, the Dragonfly Transplant Fund has provided 641 patients with gift cards to the Bread Garden Market at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics (UIHC) to stop for a cup of coffee or sandwich during their routine visits.
We celebrated our third Dragonfly Transplant Fund scholarship recipient in 2024, offering a continuing education opportunity to a nurse in the Organ Transplant Center at UIHC.
More than 240 discharge bags have been gifted to transplant patients in the last two years, which include a blood pressure monitor, a thermometer, and other helpful items to take home with them.
In memory of Carol Cutler, Dragonfly Transplant Fund has been able to provide scales to pediatric patients upon their discharge to help their families and caregivers monitor their health post-transplant.
As part of the UIHC Living Donor Recognition Program, the Dragonfly Transplant Fund continues to provide t-shirts as a gift of appreciation for their gift of life.
Volunteers with the Dragonfly Transplant Fund were able to participate in the Give Life 5K and the 2024 Iowa Transplant Open to support the Iowa Donor Network and help share our mission.
While all these little glimpses of joy happen throughout the year, we haven’t lost sight of our ultimate goal of producing a resource center lounge for patients in the Organ Transplant Center at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics. This lounge will one day be a place where transplant families and caregivers can find a sense of community, where information on the transplant process beyond the hospital's walls is available, and where transplant patients can celebrate their new lives! If you haven’t seen them yet, check out the video portal on the UIHC Organ Transplant Center website. This is a great place for transplant patients, their caregivers, and their families to find resources to start their transplant journey and connect with other resources, like the Iowa Donor Network. We are encouraged by this video portal to support the transplant community near and far.
The last thing and the most important thing I want to mention about 2024 is YOU. Your support helps keep the Dragonfly Transplant Fund moving forward. Stay up-to-date on what’s happening with us next year on our website or follow our Dragonfly adventures on Facebook.
Wishing you all a happy holiday season and a great new year in 2025!
Sincerely,
Ed Brown
Co-Founder
The Dragonfly Transplant Fund
