2025 NKFM Kidney Ball Set for November 22nd at St. John’s Resort, Plymouth
The 2025 National Kidney Foundation of Michigan Kidney Ball, also known as “the most fun black-tie event in metro Detroit” returns at 6 p.m. on Saturday, November 22, 2025, at St. John’s Resort in Plymouth, MI. This signature fundraiser hosts hundreds of area business, healthcare, and philanthropic leaders to support the NKFM’s many programs and services for preventing kidney disease and helping the over one million Michigan residents living with it. The NKFM expects to raise over $475,000 at the 20th anniversary event!
The evening features a cocktail reception with delicious drinks and appetizers, unique live/silent auctions, dinner, and dancing. Enjoy browsing along several hallways of over 250 eclectic silent auction items, including the popular Kids Room, sponsored this year by Dickinson Wright. Dinner at 7:30 p.m. is followed by a short program and a spirited live auction. This year’s live auction offerings include trips to Iceland, Italy, and Mexico, 4 floor seats to Ed Sheeran on 8/29/26 at Ford Field, a stay at the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island with a Mackinac Bridge Tour, Red Wings, Tigers, and Pistons VIP tickets, and much more. Afterwards, sweeten your night at the Hershey’s Candy Bar, snack at the late-night slider station, and dance to Your Generation in Concert until 1:00 a.m.
“Our community has been so supportive over the years,” says Linda Smith-Wheelock, NKFM President and CEO. “We use the funds raised at the Kidney Ball to educate and assist the more than one million people in Michigan with kidney disease. The funds also support the prevention and education programs that are so vital to those at risk for kidney disease.”
This year’s Kidney Ball Co-Chairs are Patrick Rugiero, Executive Director at Roman Village Restaurant Group; John C. Magee, MD, the Jeremiah and Claire Turcotte Professor of Transplantation Surgery, Section Head of Transplant Surgery, and Pediatric Abdominal Transplantation Director at the University of Michigan Transplant Center; and Loren Venegas, President of IDEAL Group.
Major financial sponsors include University of Michigan Transplant, General RV, Loren Venegas and Deborah Fishaw Venegas, Aisin Corporation, Dickinson Wright, Greenfield Health Systems/Henry Ford Health, Madison Glass Company, Metropolitan Nephrologists, RAM Construction, Roman Village, St. John’s Resort, St. Clair Nephrology, VTC Insurance Group, and Walbridge. Beverages sponsored by Franciscan Estate, LaMarca Prosecco, and William Hill Estate Winery. Candy “Bar” sponsored by Hershey.
Tickets for the Kidney Ball are $350 per guest and are available at www.nkfm.org/kidneyball or by calling the NKFM at 800-482-1455