Family takes creative approach to health crisis

Lori Chase enjoys making crafts, but doesn't consider herself a serious sort of crafts artist.

Chase jokes that she is "crafty." And that explains as well as anything the strategy she and her family are employing to raise money for her husband's impending kidney/pancreas transplant.

This weekend, Chase and her family will man a booth at The Great Craft Festival at Cashman Center to sell holiday-themed crafts items. Chase hopes the sale will help them raise the $10,000 to $15,000 she estimates she and her husband will need to support their family during Jeff Chase's post-transplant recovery.

Jeff, 31, was diagnosed with end-stage renal disease almost one year ago, largely as a product of the Type 1 diabetes he has had since childhood. However, Jeff -- who began three-times-weekly dialysis treatments a year ago -- is a good candidate for a kidney/pancreas transplant.

So, the family now is awaiting suitable donor organs. Once they're found, the family -- Jeff, Lori and son Gavin, 31/2 -- will travel to Tucson, Ariz., for the procedure and remain there for as long as three months while Jeff recovers.

Lori Chase says she doesn't expect direct medical costs to be a problem because Jeff, an electrician, has good medical insurance. However, she is concerned about the weeks after surgery when the family will, in effect, have to maintain two households, in Tucson and in Las Vegas, at a time when neither she nor Jeff will be able to work.

It is an "odd situation," says Lori, who's also expecting a second child in March.

"We've saved some money," she says, but "the thing that is scary is, we could get a call at any moment."

Then, a few months ago, Jeff's grandmother had an idea: Why not raise money by making craft items and then selling them at a craft show?

Lori was intrigued. She had never exhibited at a craft show before, but hit the Internet to do a bit of research and found Steve Powers, the promoter of this weekend's event.

Powers for years has promoted crafts shows throughout the West, and at Cashman since 1983. Lori called Powers, explaining what the family wanted to do. And, she says, Powers not only donated booth space to the family for this weekend, but offered the first-time exhibitors some tips and advice.

"I told her: 'Know what? I'll just give you a space, make what you can and, hopefully, it all pans out,' " Powers says. "It's a tough situation for them, but they're keeping a happy face on it."

Powers says this weekend's event will feature about 200 exhibitors, primarily from 10 Western states but also from as far away as Florida, and attract about 10,000. The show features only original, handmade items by independent artisans, and merchandise will include jewelry, pottery, leather goods, wood items, fiber and glass works, sculptures, toys, fine art and woven goods.

The Chase family has spent the past several months making items to feature at their booth. Lori Chase crochets, and says she has lately discovered a talent for turning light bulbs into holiday ornaments.

Family members and friends also have donated items for the event.

Green organ donor bracelets and fliers about organ donation will also be offered at the booth, Lori says, to "help spread awareness" of the vital need for donor organs.

Shoppers also will see a banner for the Jeffery Chase Kidney Foundation, an organization the family hopes to establish.

"What we really want to do -- what my husband and I hope we can get out of all of this -- is, when we're through this process ourselves, we'd like to start a foundation to help others who are in a similar situation as us," Lori says.

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@ reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.