Snohomish County-based group works to aid kidney patients

EVERETT — Since it was founded in 1981, the Kidney Auxiliary of Puget Sound has helped pay for simple things such as blankets for dialysis patients and more meaningful things like plane tickets for family members to fly to a patient’s funeral.

The group, also known as KAPS, raises money for the Puget Sound Kidney Centers in Everett, Mountlake Terrace, Smokey Point and Oak Harbor, member Rosalie Kosher said.

KAPS raised almost $750,000 since its first fundraiser in 1981. Two thirds of that came from the annual gourmet dinner and auction, one of the two main annual fundraisers.

This year’s event was last week and raised more than $63,000.

A few days before the auction, five KAPS members got together at Dee Flake’s house off Mukilteo Boulevard to make final preparations. They stuffed auction bid numbers into envelopes, made sure guests names were spelled correctly on the invitations and made arrangements for buses to drive guests to Columbia Tower in Seattle, where the event was held.

“It’s a lot of work,” Jeannie Bertrand said.

The women gathered at the large dining room table were part of the crew involved with the auxiliary from the very beginning. One of them was missing and, after five years, she is still missed. Joyce Rubatino, whose family runs the Rubatino Refuse Removal, died in 2005.

Rubatino got her friends together and started the auxiliary shortly after the first kidney center opened in Everett.

“Everybody loved Joyce, and we still miss her,” Dee Flake said.

Rubatino had good health and her quick illness in 2005 took everyone by surprise. She was in the hospital before Thanksgiving and died before Christmas. She never complained about anything and always hosted family holidays at her house, her auxiliary friends recalled.

Kosher and Rubatino had been friends since the 1950s. Even though they lived close by, the women liked to talk on the phone, Kosher said, dragging the cords all over their kitchens as they went about their daily lives.

They’ve helped hundreds of people through the auxiliary.

When patients’ cars break down or utility bills pile up, KAPS is always there for them, said Harold Kelly, president and chief executive of the Puget Sound Kidney Centers.

“I’ve been so proud of their work,” he said. “They generously spend their time and attention on patients who are nameless and faceless to them.”

KAPS members never meet the people they are helping because of privacy issues.

Kathy Rubatino-Foster, Rubatino’s daughter, has been involved with the group for at least 20 years. Now in her 50s, Rubatino-Foster is the youngest member of KAPS. Members hope to attract new people to continue their work, Kosher said. The auxiliary was founded at the time when most women didn’t work. The times are different now, and auxiliary members would be glad to adapt to new members’ lifestyles and schedules, Kosher said.

“We are a small group of active women, and we are proud of what we do,” she said.

How to help

To learn more about the Kidney Auxiliary of Puget Sound, call 425-337-3513 or 425-355-0864.

Katya Yefimova: 425-339-3452, kyefimova@heraldnet.com.

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