Dear Kidney Kars: Thanks so much for helping us! Ihelped my mother-in-law, Sammie, donate her car to the Kidney Foundation.  You have so well refined the process, it made it very easy. Kidney Kars of Utah was especially meaningful because Sammie’s niece, recently died of kidney failure, and her brother now endures dialysis.  Helping Sammie give her car to Kidney Kars made Sammie feel that she was continuing her lifelong pursuit of helping others, even though she now needs the care of a nursing home.  She knows her car will go to help people like her niece and her brother.  Bless you for helping us to help Sammie, and for making her (and us) feel like we really made a difference for kidney patients here in Utah.    In appreciation, K.E.  Wood (Sammie’s Daughter-in-law)

We wanted to write a quick thank you to the National Kidney Foundation of Utah to say thank you for the help in buying us gasoline so I could drive from Logan to Ogden every day for two weeks so I could get trained helping my husband do diaysis here at home.  Getting trained to help him dialyze at home we knew would be a huge blessing for our family, but the extra expense in gas and time away from our young family was a hurdle we just have not been able to surpass. Thank you for helping us take at least one of the burdens from our shoulders.  Thank you to all the Kidney Foundation’s generous Kidney Kars donors, and other sponsors who help people like us living with kidney failure.  God Bless you.   K. Johnson

This year the National Kidney Foundation of Utah received around 30 phone calls from donors seeking their tax receipts after they donated to what they believed to be the Kidney Kars donation program.  They have all be adamant they donated to us.  In searching around, we discovered that the a car processing center in California, who has over 300 charity clients–including American Kidney Fund (in Maryland), Kidney & Urology Foundation (New York), and Polycystic Kidney Disease Foundation (New York)–had been advertising using the words “Kidney Kars” “Kidney Cars” and “Kidney Foundation.”  We were devastated.  We later learned that the State of Utah Division of Consumer Protection had been after this company for two years to try and stop their operations in Utah. We implore anyone interested in donating their car to please only use the 1-800-TOW-KARS phone number or the www.towKars.org website.  When you talk to the phone operators, always ask where they are located.  If they are not in Utah–do not donate to them unless you are sure you want your money to go to that organization out of state.  Also, ask if that charity has a Better Business Bureau ranking on their webpage.  The Better Business Bureau has information about every charity in the state online, readily available for anyone to see and it should be visible from the charity’s website.  Please do not be angry with the National Kidney Foundation of Utah’s Kidney Kars program  if you accidentally donated to some other organization.  Kidney Kars has been in operation since 1988 and continues to be Utah’s #1 choice for car donation.  Please  remember 1-800-TOW-KARS (1-800-869-5277) or www.towKars.org!  Our office is in Provo, we look forward to answering your questions about how to donate a car to Kidney Kars.  Towing is free, and the donation is tax deductible.

http://articles.moneycentral.msn.com/Taxes/CutYourTaxes/10bigDeductionsTooManyPeopleMiss.aspx

Dear Kidney Foundation:  Thank you so much for the gas card to help us buy fuel to get to and from dialysis this week.  We have to make the 130 mile round trip 3 times a week.  We live in Panguich, and must drive over the mountain pass (Bear Valley, Hwy 20) to get to Cedar City–even in bad weather–because my husband simply can not miss dialysis or he will die.   We have put our home up for sale in order to move closer to the clinic, but it is very sad.  My husband was born in this very bedroom. It is a very old home, and special to us, but don’t know if anyone will even buy it.   In the meantime, we will make the drive to Cedar City, faithfully 3 times a week.  Thank you for your help and assistance in helping us get there.  Please let me know if I can do anything to help the Foundation.  I am good at making flyers and advertising, and have run a blood drive at our Church Social Hall.  Let me know if this is helpful, I want to help and return the favor to your organization.  Thank you again for your help, and concern for our wellfare.  Sincerely,   David & Connie O.

Dear Ms. Vetterli:  In the letter, you stated to ‘help lighten the burden and improve the quality of life for Utah & Idaho dialysis and tranpslant patients.’  No truer words about the Kidney Foundation have ever been spoken.  Unless you have experienced kidney failure, and dialysis, you have no idea how much the Kidney Foundation helps in every way.    For every Kidney Kar donation, for every company that donates money, for every generous donor– I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart.  I wish I could personally thank each donor and tell them how much they have helped relieve the huge burden of living with k idney failiure is on me and my family.  I probably would have died 3 years ago without your help with my medications and housing.  I was giving up the struggle to stress and financial burdens I was unable to bear while I was so sick.  I stil have bad days, but I feel like I have you, and the Kidney Foundation donors helping ‘lighten my burden’ and that makes me want to keep fighting to be around for my children and for those who have been so generous.  Thank you so much.  Sincerely, Hazel G.

http://www.slate.com/id/2241530/?GT1=38001

Dear Kidney Kars, I am writing to give thanks for all you have done for me to help me stay current on my insurance premiums.  Living with kidney failure has so many aspects that need to be addressed– always when you least expect it.  Last week, I had surgery to try and place a Peritoneal Dialysis catheter so I can dialyze at home.  This has been a long process to get that to work, and when I got to dialysis on Friday, my fistula clotted, and I needed to have a fistula-gram to open it up again.  This was much unexpected– but so like kidney failure.  Thank you again for the help and burden it relieves me of.  Merry Christmas to your donors who help improve our lives with their Kidney Kars and other donations.  R. Hammon

Dear Friends of the National Kidney Foundation of Utah:  I’ve been fighting renal failure for 2 1/2 years.  I’ve had lots of testing, with the end result of having a fistula put in my left arm, and doing 3 hours of dialysis 3 times a week.  I started dialysis last December 8, 2008.  One of the ‘blessings’ of end stage renal failure is all the love and giving from friends and family, and organizations like the  Kidney Foundation!  My ‘baby’ brother, and his wife have started the process of being tested to see if they can donate a kidney to me.  Words can not express my feelings of thanks and gratitude.  I am so grateful for the generosity of others, my family and the Kidney Foundation. Thank you, thank you!  From the bottom of my “kidney.”  –B. Jackson

An essay about Kidney Kars donation in Utah by Mindy Lind. Mindy is the daughter of Roger Stratford, a past Kidney Foundation Board President and Kidney Donor.  Thanks to both Roger and Mindy for sharing this perfect essay about Kidney Kars! 

http://marzipansmind.blogspot.com/2008/12/national-kidney-foundation-loves-me.html