Drive for Five: Sports

Before settling deep in the couch for week 16 of the NFL season, Sunday morning thoughts shift forward to the new year. Primarily, hopes and dreams of "Drive for Five" and its efforts to encourage more live organ donations and fewer kidney disease sufferers.

Encouraging others to achieve goals and overcome challenges using sports as the connector, education the ignitor and transforming lives as the inspiration. Thoughts zoom to the realization of a well-worn business phrase about success. It usually happens when the vision is crystal clear.

Sports are such a bonding experience. Why not take advantage of that truth? While we’re rallying around our favorite teams also educate about sharing a spare and saving a life? Yep. DFF, given its roots are there, is stepping full time into the sports space. It has led to incredible connections.

The leadoff hitter is a guy out of Detroit, David Galbenski . We constantly turn a ten-minute catch up call into an hour of brainstorming. This athletic entrepreneur received a liver transplant five years ago from his brother-in-law. The baseball fanatic turned that new lease on life into the Living Liver Foundation .

It created the Living Donor Awareness Game (LDAG) and has worked tirelessly to bring this to major league, minor league and college parks. LDAG has a track record of success with the Reds, Phillies, Braves. Ever since two ol’ jocks started dreaming about this? It has led to a goal of bringing this to every MLB park and beyond.

A real powerful moment? A donor, Cathie Hitchcock for me, and the recipient are applauded in throwing out the ceremonial first pitch. Talk about an impactful visual: Hitchcock tosses a baseball, representing a kidney, to McIntosh. He catches it and receives a new lease on life. On the concourse? All kinds of information. The health care world, donors and recipients are celebrated. Life is celebrated. DFF is honored to work with Galbenski and his team to expand LDAG’s baseball presence.

The fun quest to make Living Donor Awareness Games a staple of baseball is magnified because it also connects deeply with DFF ambassador Crissy Perham. The dynamo who donated a kidney to Dick Franklin - Missy’s dad - won two golds and a silver in the ’92 Barcelona Games. Butterfly. Post swimming career? Lots of experience in baseball. Excellent.

Bringing this fun event to a larger baseball audience seems like a darn good idea.

The other sports-related program Drive for Five is thrilled to join involves the Transplant Games of America. Bill Ryan, based in Michigan, has been running the games for more than a decade. Deep sports background and a big heart to celebrate organ donation. The low-key guy knows the pain of losing children in their formative years. However, the four-decade veteran of NCAA basketball tournaments finds solace in knowing his cherished children’s donated organs saved lives.

This year, the Transplant Games of America were held in Birmingham, Alabama. Donors and recipients compete in 20 competitions. Running, swimming, golf, ballroom dancing and tennis to name just five. Competitors earn bronze, silver and gold. Your scribe joked to Perham, when talking about DFF’s goal to bring the 2026 Games to Denver, “You and Missy could hold a featured race and compete against each other!” Like many, Perham offered, “You’re crazy.”

Guilty as charged. Working with Living Liver Foundation and expanding the reach of the popular Living Donor Awareness Games? What a blessing.

Working with the Transplant Games of America to bring the 2026 games to Denver? Equally exciting. The games bring a projected 8,000 athletes, 10,000 room nights and $8-10 million bump to the Mile High City’s economy? Purposeful.

Thrive in 2025. That’s the DFF Network mantra as we try and encourage more live organ donations and less kidney disease. The focus is sports and their effectiveness, in a sports-crazy culture, to connect, educate and inspire.

It's an honor to meet folks like Galbenski and Ryan. Throw in Perham and we have four of a kind. Certainly a winning hand in Vegas and in using sports as the conduit to more live organ donations and less kidney disease. We all win!