Spaghetti dinner fundraiser to take bite out of couple’s medical expenses

RANDOLPH — A group of community members are offering a helping hand with a plate of spaghetti. Reaching Out Around Randolph (R.O.A.R.) is sponsoring a spaghetti fundraiser to benefit Linda and Kim Dorschner of Randolph and help them take a bite out of some of their medical expenses.

The event will be 5-8 p.m., Saturday, March 27, at the city auditorium with both dine-in and drive-thru meals available. A free-will donation is being collected and R.O.A.R. members are selling raffle tickets for a cash prize. Raffle tickets are for sale at First State Bank prior to the event.

Linda was born and raised on a farm near Belden and has been a part of the Randolph community for decades. She has worked at the Randolph and Laurel schools as a custodian and as a bus driver for Laurel and Randolph schools.

“This is one way for R.O.A.R. to be able to pay back and help somebody in need that has helped so many others in the community,” said Sandy Owens, president of the club.

Linda said she is both humbled and grateful and wants to use the benefit to raise awareness about organ donation.

“It’s one of those hard things to absorb,” she said. “You don’t ever feel like you need to ask for help and then when they come and want to do something for you, what do you say?”

Linda has been living with polycystic kidney disease since her late 20s. The disease is an inherited disorder in which clusters of cysts develop in the kidneys that can eventually lead to kidney failure.

She’s been living with the disease without too much stress until the last four years. In January, Linda started home dialysis. She also recently had to have her parathyroid removed and has struggled to maintain calcium levels in her body - leading to infusions.

Her husband, Kim, was diagnosed last June with bone marrow cancer after routine screening.

“He found out on a Thursday and by Monday he was doing chemo,” Linda said.

Now, his blood is tested every two months and at his last checkup his numbers were back in a normal range, Linda said.

Understandably, the couple has a lot on their plates.

“We’re muddling through it,” Linda said, and they strive to take each day as it comes.

There is no cure for polycystic kidney disease, and she is hoping and praying for a live kidney donor, completing the necessary steps to be added to donor registries at facilities in Omaha, Sioux Falls and Rochester.

“You would think there would be a universal list, but I guess there’s not,” she said, with each facility requiring their own paperwork and screening processes.

One of her cousins has started the screening process for potential live donation but even the process to see if his kidney would be a good match takes time.

Linda hopes to have some brochures about organ donation at Saturday’s benefit to help answer questions and steer people toward considering becoming a donor.

“This day and age, it’s nothing real uncommon where you can basically designate it on your license,” she said. “But there are those people, and I’ve been one of them, to think, ‘Who would want anything of mine?’ But there’s got to be something.”

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