WHAT A YEAR! I FROM OUR CEO AND BOARD CHAIR
2020 HAS BEEN A CHALLENGING YEAR FOR THE ENTIRE COUNTRY. AMAZINGLY, DESPITE THE MANY CHALLENGES, OUR HEROES, DONORS AND THEIR DONOR FAMILIES, CONTINUED TO PUT THEIR TRUST IN US AND SAY, “YES” TO DONATION. WE ARE HONORED AND THANKFUL FOR THEIR TRUST WHICH EXEMPLIFIES THE TRUE NATURE OF THE HUMAN SPIRIT, THE BELIEF THAT EVEN IN THE WORST OF TIMES, THERE IS GOOD IN THE WORLD. We are also very grateful to the dedicated staff of Iowa Donor Network who respond when our donor families need us and make donation happen. At an unknown risk to themselves and their health and well-being, these courageous people report to work in COVID filled hospitals. In the background, there are many other team members and support staff that make the front-line response possible. On very short notice, the entire IDN team figured out how to work differently to protect ourselves and each other from the Corona virus. For most, this meant figuring out how to do their jobs from home, in a remote environment. No small feat in a rural state like Iowa where Internet bandwidth is a challenge. Through patience and determination, we figured it out and adapted to the challenges that came our way and continue to do so. We are especially in awe of those staff members who found themselves conducting home school classes and daycare duties while trying to be online attending to their full-time jobs. What a year! We congratulate all for a job well done! In the end, we pulled it together to meet our mission of, Working Together to Transform Lives Through Organ and Tissue Donation . Also, while we operated in a virtual environment, including conducting online Driver’s education classes, volunteer training and hospital development presentations and meetings we accomplished some major milestones: In 2020 we recovered organs from our 1500 th organ donor and provided our 5000 th organ for transplantation. Also, in a historic first, we worked with an out-of-state transplant center to recover a heart for transplantation from a Donor After Circulatory Death. This is a difficult procedure that is still considered quite rare in the United States. In another milestone, we coordinated our 12,000 th tissue donation! All of this while coping with PPE shortages and virus-related staffing challenges. In another first, we held a virtual 5K fundraiser and awareness effort that exceeded our goals for participation and funds raised. We also held our annual Donor Candlelight Tribute events virtually and had our best attendance ever! While COVID-19 has certainly challenged us this year, it has also brought us some gifts. We have learned that we can reach many more donor families and volunteers through virtual offerings, and so, we will probably continue some of these strategies long after the virus has been brought under control. We look forward to that day when we can greet all of you in person again.
SUZANNE CONRAD CEO
DR. CHRISTIE THOMAS BOARD CHAIR
Sincerely,
Suzanne Conrad Chief Executive Officer
Dr. Christie Thomas Chair, Board of Directors
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