Stew Leonard's in Norwalk is helping to raise awareness about kidney disease.

Members of the Leonard family, donors and recipients presented a $2,000 check to the National Kidney Foundation Thursday.

The money was raised in August through the store's "Wishing Well' and "Round Up at the Register" program.

The store was inspired to create the fundraiser because of Jill Leonard Tavello, a daughter of Stew Leonard Sr., who received a lifesaving kidney transplant in 2022 after she was diagnosed with cancer.

The donation will provide support and resources to local patients and families, along with ensuring doctors have the latest information.

"We have an innovation fund where we invest in really promising start up therapies and treatments. We're really at the heart of all of those innovations because 1 in 12 people die every time waiting for a kidney and the reality is that living donations through another living donor is the most promising way to get a kidney," says Saskia Thomson, the foundation's executive director.

The foundation says that in the U.S., more than 37 million adults are believed to have kidney disease.