By the Family of Dale Amorosia
About the Dale Amorosia Heart Fund: Dale Joseph Amorosia led a full life in spite of fighting the congenital heart disease of Shone's syndrome. To help individuals with CHD, the Dale Amorosia Heart Fund has been formed in conjunction with the Adult Congenital Heart Association, which he supported throughout his adult life. Donations to the Dale Amorosia Heart Fund will support ACHA’s research efforts by funding fellow grants.
Our son and brother Dale had heart issues since the day he was born in the 1970s. We learned of ACHA through him. He went to an ACHA national conference in 2011, in his mid-30s, and we decided it was a marvelous organization.
Since we had been supporting ACHA already, we were looking to designate a fund in Dale’s name—we just weren’t sure about the best way to do it. We happened to get one of ACHA’s email blasts about their research grants. As soon as we read that we thought, “that’s it!” What we wanted to do was find something to support a specific person or effort, so there are faces and names that Dale’s fund is going towards.
We learned that designating a fund for a loved one through ACHA does a few things. First, in our case, it advances the research and it can advantage a number of people in the longer term. You can designate your fund towards a specific effort, but it also puts the name of the person you’re memorializing so that people who are considering donating can also see his name and face. Sometimes it’s hard to identify something nebulous like research, or it’s hard to put your arms around a project if you don’t know where it may go, but if you know you’re helping a person like Dale, you can say, “this can make a difference.”
When Dale moved from being a child to an adult, we became aware there was a specialty for ACHD. In some sense, we were fortunate we had that specialty. That really explains why we really set up this fund. If Dale had been born five years earlier, he probably would not have made it. He was fortunate in that research and technology made his life possible.
We established this fund simply because we’d like to see this continue. What is being researched today is going to help people being born today and tomorrow. We think research from one disease can even help other diseases—when you’re talking about devices, surgery materials, patient care, and more. For instance, if you’re perfecting pacemaker technology, that can be useful elsewhere.
Overall, the more researchers can advance the field, the better—and that’s why it’s important these efforts keep going.
ACHA works closely with families to set up a tribute fund in honor or memory of their loved one with CHD. If you are interested in learning more about how you can create a tribute fund, please contact giving@achaheart.org.