Our Story
From Personal Journey to Shared Mission
From Personal Journey to Shared Mission
From Personal Journey to Shared Mission
As the founder of Closest to Home, Diana Folino's transplant journey is deeply personal to her. Having received the incredible gift of life through two heart transplants and a kidney transplant, she understands firsthand the challenges that patients and their families face—not only medically and emotionally, but financially as well.
Throughout her own journey, she saw how difficult it can be for transplant families to find safe, comfortable, and affordable housing close to the hospitals where lifesaving care takes place. That experience inspired Closest to Home.
Our mission is to help ease that burden by providing affordable housing near transplant hospitals, giving patients and their families a place to stay close to the medical teams they depend on. Diana's hope is to turn the second chances she has been given into second chances for others—so transplant families can focus less on where they will stay and more on what matters most: healing, hope, and being together.
Why Closest to Home Matters
From Personal Journey to Shared Mission
From Personal Journey to Shared Mission
For transplant patients, lifesaving care often means traveling far from home and remaining close to a transplant hospital for weeks or even months. During an already overwhelming time, the cost of temporary housing can become an unexpected financial burden for patients and their families.
Closest to Home was created to help change that.
We believe no transplant patient should have to worry about choosing between the cost of a place to stay and the care they need. By helping provide safe, comfortable, and affordable housing near transplant hospitals, we hope to give families something invaluable during their transplant journey—a place that feels a little more like home.
Our Mission
From Personal Journey to Shared Mission
Our Mission
The mission of Closest to Home is to provide affordable, welcoming housing for transplant patients and their families who must temporarily relocate to be near a transplant hospital.
Our goal is simple: keep families close to lifesaving care without adding unnecessary financial hardship.
Through charitable support, community partnerships, and the generosity of donors, we are working to create places where transplant families can rest, recover, and remain together throughout one of the most important journeys of their lives.
Board of Directors
Our Staff and Volunteers
Our Staff and Volunteers
Diana M. Folino
Founder, Heart Transplant Recipient
Jason Long
Community Liaison, Caregiver
Dcn. Charles B. Kanaszka, Jr.
Director, Transplant Caregiver
Mary E. Darlene Kanaszka
Director, Transplant Caregiver
Our Staff and Volunteers
Our Staff and Volunteers
Our Staff and Volunteers
At Closest to Home, our mission is deeply personal. Every staff member and volunteer has been touched by transplantation—whether through their own journey or by supporting a family member, friend, or loved one through evaluation, transplant, recovery, or life after transplant. These experiences give us a personal understanding of the uncertainty, sacrifices, and challenges transplant families face, as well as the importance of having support and a safe place to stay close to lifesaving care. We are more than an organization serving transplant families—we are people who understand the journey, standing beside others as they navigate their own.
Help Support Our Mission
Your support and contributions will enable us to meet the needs of transplant recipients and their families.
Closest to Home, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization EIN: 84-3483077, and contributions are tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law. Please consult your tax advisor or accountant regarding your indi