Brian and Rhonda McDonald
Resides: Tampa
Involvement with BDFF: Since foundation, 1996
For the past 23 years, Brian and Rhonda McDonald—founders of the Bleeding Disorders Foundation of Florida—have dedicated each fall to Sponsor and manage the BDFF’s Flight for Tomorrow Invitational Golf Tournament, a fundraiser that has netted more than $2 million for the Foundation.
That money has paid for hundreds of children in the bleeding disorders community to attend the BDFF’s Camp Spirit at Camp Boggy Creek where kids learn that anything is possible with hemophilia. They learn how to self-infuse and make friends for life. The golf tourney proceeds also helps scores of families with critical emergency funding.
This year, East Lake Woodlands Country Club will host the annual BDFF Golf Tournament on October 28, 2019.
Soon after moving to Florida from Michigan in 1986, Brian saw a need in the community to serve those with bleeding disorders. He and Rhonda founded BDFF in 1996. Calvin Dawson, who partnered with Brian and Rhonda to create the Foundation, served as its first executive director. Wanda Bedell followed and was succeeded by Fran Haynes, who has been at the BDFF helm for the past 18 years.
Since the Foundation’s beginnings, Brian has seen many exciting changes in the bleeding disorders community.
“It has been pretty remarkable,” he says. “The Foundation has expanded their programs and services to meet the ever changing needs of the community. When we started the BDFF our major focus was Hemophilia now we serve other bleeding disorders such as von Willebrand’s disease which affects both men and women and other factor deficiencies.”
To register, or for more information on the Bleeding Disorders Foundation of Florida’s Flight for Tomorrow Invitational Golf Tournament visit hemophiliaflorida.org/fundraising/golf-tournament. The Club is located at 1055 East Lake Woodlands Parkway in Oldsmar, Florida.