MeredithNews | Meredith Haga Foundation

The latest news from Meredith Haga Foundation: October 2025

admin — Wed, 29 Oct 2025 22:55:20 +0000

A Brother’s Gift of Love

When Roger learned that his younger brother’s kidney function was declining, he didn’t hesitate to step forward. “He’s my baby brother,” Roger shared. “After losing our parents, I knew this was something Mom and Dad would have wanted me to do.”

MHF has Camp O Covered

Meredith Haga Foundation donated 100 quilts to DCI Camp Okawehna campers this past June! The foundation donated quilts to campers to stay warm and comfortable during their dialysis treatments.

One of Meredith’s goals was to provided blankets to dialysis patients to keep warm during treatment.

Today, we fulfill hergoal by providing blankets to dialysis centers

Life as it should be. Loving. Living. Sharing

Two weeks ago today, I donated a kidney. This morning I woke up in my own bed, 2,666 miles away. The morning sun streamed in my window. I took a moment to assess my recovery:

6th year KidneyVersary Celebration at The Grill

Since 2019, the Meredith Haga Foundation has held a fundraiser in Richmond, VA to remember and celebrate the living kidney donation of Bruce to Meredith.

We would like to thank all who attended and a big THANK YOU to our sponsors and partners.

The Grill, ARCO, Gary Martin Real Estate, Trent Corp, DLA Promotions, Ellen Davis Creative, Children’s Museum of Richmond, Richmond Flying Squirrels, Liverpool Los Angeles, The Shops at 5807, Fall Line BBQ, Starlight Distillery, and Stone Ridge Farms.

Introducing our 2025-2026 Board of Directors

Sweet Briar Grad’s Viral Photo

admin — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 22:22:19 +0000

“I am here because of an organ donor.”

These are the words Sweet Briar College graduate Meredith Haga wrote on the black mortarboard she wore at the College’s 107th commencement on May 14. For her, nothing else could possibly express the emotion of that day. She was about to graduate from college. And she was alive.

The Bristol, Va., native had no idea her cap would be featured in a photo album on the College’s Facebook page. She certainly could not have imagined the viral tidal wave that swept that photo around the U.S.

As of Wednesday morning, the image, captured by Sweet Briar photographer Cassie Foster, had reached more than 1.17 million people. It garnered more than 3,900 likes and had been shared 8,600 times.

Meredith & Joey Gase – Racing for Organ Donation

admin — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 22:22:05 +0000

Joey Gase has been one of the biggest proponents of Organ and Tissue Donation in professional sports especially with his Donate Life car circling the Xfinity and NASCAR tracks throughout the country. Joey’s first hand personal relationship with organ donation has made him a champion for the cause, but there was special bond with the local Tennessee Donate Life office and volunteers in Northeast Tennessee.

The Mary Jo Gase award was created in honor of Joey’s mother to recognize the outstanding volunteer of the year for northeast Tennessee. Meredith and Bruce were awarded with the volunteer of the year award and were proudly displayed on the bumper of Joey Gase’s car in 2013.

In 2016 Meredith and Joey again teamed up to place handprints on the hood of Joey’s race car in honor of those that have been touched by organ donation in Northeast Tennessee and SouthWest Virginia.

August 2018 was the saddest of all racing at Bristol, as Meredith was no longer with us, but her spirit lived on. Just one month after Meredith’s death, she was again honored on the bumper of Joey Gase’s car.

Bruce helps to keep Meredith’s “racing legacy” alive by sponsoring Joey Gase Racing Xfinity races in both Richmond and Bristol. Thank you Joey Gase for your commitment to Meredith, Donate Life and the Meredith Haga Foundation.

Wedding Bells for Sweet Briar Grad

admin — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 22:21:55 +0000

She never expected to be famous. Meredith Haga just wanted to live.

Even still, her graduation photo has been seen by more than 1.5 million people since it posted on Facebook last summer. The image features a simple message on top of her cap:

I am here because of an organ donor.

An honor student and stand-out athlete in high school, Meredith suddenly fell ill the summer between her junior and senior year. An auto-immune disease that attacks the kidneys had taken hold and Meredith quickly found herself in chemotherapy. The treatment worked for a while, but by the time she was to begin college at Sweet Briar in 2011, her kidneys failed.

Meredith was 18.

On dialysis, she waited as her bright future hung in the balance. She would need a new kidney to survive.

Joey Gase takes Meredith’s Message to fans

admin — Sun, 09 Mar 2025 22:21:42 +0000

Meredith Haga Fox was not shy about encouraging others to become organ donors—quite the opposite, she was passionate and determined. “She didn’t take ‘no’ very well,” remembers NASCAR driver Joey Gase, who became friends with Meredith during his work with Donate Life Virginia.

If anyone knew the power of direct statements, it was Meredith. A 2015 photo of her at her commencement from Sweet Briar College went viral—a radiant young woman at the start of her adult life with “I AM HERE BECAUSE OF AN ORGAN DONOR” stated simply on her mortarboard. It reached two million people.