Making a dream come true – Jamie Crane’s Transplant Dream Foundation hosts Lung-a-Palooza Sunday

After Jamie Crane recovered from a double lung transplant in March 2012, he spent his time wondering.

“I was thinking about what I could do that would occupy my time,” he says. “I thought, ‘How could I give back to the people who are in the same situation?'”

Crane, who was born with cystic fibrosis, received a new life after his transplant.

“They had to cut through the breastplate and sternum,” he says. “I had to learn to cough and breathe again. I had to learn to talk again. I had to learn to walk. It was all new things. It was a whole new ball game for me.”

Read more on Crane’s recovery here.

Crane’s then-fiancée, now-wife Kristen, gave him an idea: do some charity work. Though he describes himself as scatter-brained, Crane launched a nonprofit organization by fall 2012, the Transplant Dream Foundation.

Crane’s foundation will host its first fundraiser at Mud and Water (Map it!) Sunday at 4 p.m. Cover is $7.

The festivities are being dubbed Lung-a-Palooza. The event includes music from Rocky Denny Band, The Cypress Bayou Band, Cross Town, Folky J, Our First Fight, Gal Holiday and The Honky Tonk Revue and DJ Bird. Pullin’ Pork food truck and POPculture handmade popsicles will provide food. Raffle drawings will also take place.

With Transplant Dream Foundation, Craine wants to provide a dream vacation to Walt Disney World for patients on their one-year anniversaries of their lung transplants.

“When you get to the anniversary of your transplant it’s like a new birthday,” he says. “I want to pay for their vacation to celebrate that anniversary.”

Before he could send any patient to Disney World, Craine had to step back and do his research. He discussed the idea of giving a vacation to roughly 200 patients he knew. He overanalyzed all the ideas that come with a nonprofit. He kept hearing voices that said the idea was too big.

“There were a lot of times when I had anxiety,” he says. “I wouldn’t have gotten it done if it weren’t for my wife and my brothers saying, ‘Keep it up.’ I didn’t care about making money. I told myself, ‘If you put your heart into what you want to do, you’ll be successful.’ I had to go with my heart. Thankfully, I’ve been doing this for a year. I’ve gotten awareness about it, and I’m going to keep plugging away at it.”

Seeing that drive, perhaps it’s no surprise that his dream of fulfilling others’ dreams is coming to fruition.

Crane will send a cystic fibrosis patient on a vacation courtesy of Transplant Dream Foundation in November.