The National Kidney Foundation of Maryland (NKF-MD) recently held its annual Volunteer Awards Reception at The Baltimore Museum of Industry.

Sponsored by Mid-Atlantic Nephrology Associates, Envirotest and Johns Hopkins Medicine Comprehensive Transplant Center, the event recognized individuals and organizations for their time and hard work on behalf of the Foundation.

“Our volunteers truly are the lifeline of this lifesaving organization,” said Cassie Shafer, NKF-MD’s CEO.

“They make a tangible difference in the lives of our kidney patients and many have been personally touched by kidney disease, which makes their experience extraordinarily meaningful.”

With WJZ-TV’s Ron Matz as emcee, NKF-MD presented 19 awards. Lutherville resident and NKF-MD committee member, Sarah Cicero, received the Baltimore Kidney Walk All-Star Award.

According to NKF-MD:

“Sarah has been a part of this planning committee for the past four years. Her passion for the cause and her drive to motivate her team to raise more money each year is all for her dad, who is currently on dialysis.

She helps promote the event in numerous ways, including placing a banner at the entrance to her office building at the main drag in downtown Ellicott City. Her contributions range from securing in-kind donations, to recruiting teams and volunteers from as far as York College, where her younger sister attends school. Her sister and 30 of her sorority sisters volunteered to paint the cheeks of little children who gather for the Kidney Walk.”

In addition to honoring the volunteers, the reception celebrated NFK-MD’s many accomplishments throughout the year, such as:

• KEY: Kidneys, Evaluate Yours free community health screenings reached more than 600 people, identifying at least 30 percent of these individuals with a possible risk factor for kidney disease.
  
  
• NKF-MD launched the Kidney Health Risk Assessment (KHRA) on World Kidney Day. This front-line assessment provided awareness and information about kidney disease to over 800 individuals.
  
  
• Educational talks continued to touch a real need in several new areas of the state, including inner-city Baltimore.
  
  
• The Foundation funded $200,000 to valuable life-saving research in Maryland, which is more funding towards research than any other NKF division or affiliate in the country! 
  
  
• NKF-MD’s patient emergency assistance program funded $165,000 to equip social workers to meet the emergency needs of dialysis patients and transplant recipients, whose lives have been dramatically altered by kidney disease. 

Serving central and western Maryland, the Delmarva Peninsula and portions of West Virginia, the National Kidney Foundation of Maryland is the area’s only voluntary health agency dedicated to the prevention, treatment and cure of kidney and urinary tract diseases. For more information, visit www.kidneymd.org.