2 weeks Ago By Rebecca Mitchell
ROCHESTER — At 8 years old, Kambrynn Ronningen joyfully danced and rode horses through life while making friends with people along the way. “She had a huge heart. She just wanted to make people happy,” said her dad, Eric Ronningen, during an event honoring organ, eye and tissue donors on Friday, April 11, 2025.
ADVERTISEMENT Kambrynn, who was in third grade at Plainview-Elgin-Millville School, died in a motor-vehicle accident in November 2024. Her organs and eyes were donated to three people. “She could tell if there was a sad person in the room.
She could just sense it and go to them and try to make them feel better. Whether it was through laughter or hugging or whatever it may be, you could always count on Kam to put yourself first over anything else,” Eric said. With Kambrynn forever age 8 in their hearts, family and friends celebrated her silly, spunky personality during the 11th annual Day of Remembrance at Mayo Clinic Hospital-Saint Marys.
Those same community members shared their support of the Ronningen family with pink “Fly High, Kambrynn” T-shirts. The T-shirts are sold in a fundraiser through the Forever 8 Memorial, which has raised more than $15,000. The Ronningens also started the Forever 8 Kambrynn Ronningen Equine Memorial Scholarship in Crookston.
Their daughter Kinsley designed the shirts and makes blankets for patients at the Gift of Life Transplant House. “We just really want to spread her wings, remember her heroism and how proud she would have been that she was able to save other people's lives," Colleen said. "But knowing Kam, she would have never thought about herself first.
She just always had that sense and to help, she just always wanted to do better for other people and it means a lot to remember her in this way and to raise that awareness of how important (donors are).” Both Colleen and Kinsley were also injured in the crash while traveling from Plainview to Rochester to buy a birthday present for Eric. In parting with Kambrynn’s life, LifeSource donation liaison Bethany Nolt helped carry the Ronningen family, including in the hard conversations about donating organs.
Eric said choosing to help other people is what Kambrynn would have loved to do. He also updated his driver’s license to be a donor. More friends and family members have made the decision as well.
ADVERTISEMENT “It's a continuation of her life, at least that's how we feel. That she's still out there helping and she's done a lot of extra good,” Eric said, his thoughts of the three people who received Kambrynn’s organs and eyes. In 2024, Mayo Clinic had 15 internal patient organ donors, 23 regional organ donors, 29 tissue donors and 75 eye donors.
“What makes what I do in transplant medicine unique or unlike that any other field in the medicine is it actually begins with two lives," said Dr. Timucin Taner, a Mayo Clinic transplant surgeon. "Every transplant story is a shared story.
It's not just a medical procedure, it's a bridge between two lives. Often strangers, but then they are connected forever. When one life ends, we see that another one starts.
” Mayo Clinic Transplant Center operations administrator Katie McKee said she sees “hope up-close” while supporting families. “If Kambrynn could say anything to those receiving life, she would say, ‘You have to keep going to help others. If I don't, who will?’” Eric said.
While creating space for loss, grief, changed lives and hope, a panel of speakers shared how they count their days like the three weeks that Dr. Janelle Santos and Matt Humphrey’s daughter Isabel were on the heart transplant list and the three months and one week since Steve Johnson received his liver transplant. The panel included the Ronningen family, Santos, Humphrey, Johnson, Vanessa Sherer and Derek and Lisa Pfaff.
“Many people our family knows (are) because of our sweet Kambrynn's ability to make everyone feel like a friend she had known her whole life,” Kinsley shared during the panel of donor families and recipients. ADVERTISEMENT In their grieving journeys, the Ronnigen family shared stories of Kambrynn’s love for people, her favorite colors, purple and teal, and her talent of riding horses since 2 years old. “In hindsight, those final two days with Kambrynn meant the world to us.
We were able to talk and snuggle her, wrap her in her love and bless her for the gift she was to our family,” Eric said. Kambrynn looked forward to her time around horses and competing in events, including at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds. Colleen described Kambrynn as the “life of that party” while interacting with people at horse shows.
“She had an amazing gift of equines,” Colleen said. “She would introduce herself to people from horse, like from horseback right up next to somebody, stick her tongue out at them, smile or maybe doing something, and she’d make a comment that she could train better.” The Ronningen family, Santos and Humphrey also ceremoniously raised the Donate Life flag outside Saint Marys Hospital.
The flag is raised when an organ transplant is occurring, which is a tradition started by retired LifeSource donation liaison and specialist with Mayo Clinic's Office of Decedent Affairs, Cathy Dudley. “When we got that letter in the mail learning who she helped, ..
. I was taken aback by actually the age of the people she was able to help,” Colleen said. “If a child passes, it’s not just a child that they can help.
” For more information on registering as a donor, visit donatelife.net . ADVERTISEMENT.
