Basketball For Organ Donation Awareness!
Sunday, we went to the regional chapter of the National Kidney Foundation's 2017 Organ Donation Awareness Tournament at Verizon Center. Here, DC101 radio personalities, and arguably the most creatively dressed team, Mike Jones, Roche and Khan.
The NKF serving the National Capital Area was on the Verizon Center concourse during the game to raise awareness and register organ donors, along with the Washington Regional Transplant Community. Be the Match joined NKF and WRTC to do cheek-swabbing, the test that enters people into the bone marrow registry. Emma Seiders, a young patient who has experienced liver and bone marrow failure, shared her story at the tournament and volunteered on the concourse. Emma was joined by Andrea Caruccio, a kidney-pancreas recipient, who addressed attendees. Here, tournament honorary chair Doug Kammerer of NBC4 Washington, NKF/NCA executive director Michele Anthony, kidney transplant recipient Austin Lee, voice of the Georgetown Hoyas Rick Hall, Andrea and Emma.
The charity basketball tournament was hosted by the NKF/NCA where participants competed in three-on-three half-court scrimmages on the same floor as the red-hot Washington Wizards. Tournament sponsors and participants also enjoy reserved seating for the thrilling Wizards win vs. the Orlando Magic, where newly signed sharpshooter Bojan Bogdanovic hit a career-high eight three-pointers for Washington. Guests also had the opportunity to participate in the Wizards’ fan tunnel and high-five their favorite player. Among the charity basketball tournament teams competing were management, technology and strategy consulting firm Attain, whose president and chief operating officer, Manish Agarwal, is board chair of NKF/NCA and a kidney transplant recipient. Here, Attain’s Greg Baroni, Todd Morris and Agarwal.
Blue Canopy president and CEO Brad Schwartz and Eagle Bank portfolio manager Keith Wang.
In the end, it was team EagleBank eking out a win over NBC 4 for the tournament championship. The event is held in March in honor of National Kidney Month. The NKF is the largest, most comprehensive and long-standing patient-centric organization dedicated to the awareness, prevention and treatment of kidney disease in the U.S.
Alfredo Flores contributed to this issue.
