The Rays the Mark Foundation will honor Emily DeVito, an employee at Albany, New York’s Capital District Transportation Authority (CDTA), during its October 3 golf fundraiser at Ravisloe Country Club, coinciding with APTA TRANSform in Chicago and continuing the organization’s mission of supporting members of the public transportation industry facing serious health and personal challenges.

Individuals and organizations can support the effort by registering to play either individually or as a team of up to four, sponsoring the event, making donations, or contributing to community fundraising activities tied to DeVito’s transplant journey. All proceeds will go directly to the honoree. Additional information is available at raysthemarkfoundation.com.

DeVito, 33, is a mother of 4½-year-old twins, a wife, and a longtime public servant in New York’s Capital Region. Before joining CDTA, she worked as a journalist at WNYT and remains active in the community through St. Pius X Church in Loudonville, Capital District Food Pantries, and Donate Life of New York.

DeVito is battling kidney failure caused by polycystic kidney disease (PKD), a hereditary condition that has rapidly reduced her kidney function. She is expected to begin hemodialysis within the next one to two months and is listed for a kidney transplant at Massachusetts General Hospital. She is urgently seeking a living kidney donor.

Continuing to Raise the Mark

The fundraiser is part of the ongoing work of the Rays the Mark Foundation, a nonprofit created by Ster Seating President Ray Melleady and TransPro Consulting founder Mark Aesch, to support transportation industry professionals facing medical crises. The foundation was launched after longtime transit industry executive the late Sonny Gordon was diagnosed with ALS.

“Our main goal is to support people in the transit industry who have made the world, and our collective worlds, a better place,” Aesch told METRO in 2023.

Since its founding, Rays the Mark has organized fundraising events tied to major industry gatherings and has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for transit professionals and their families facing medical and financial hardships. Previous honorees have included Gordon and Lauren Cochran, who underwent treatment for breast cancer.

Organizers said the October 3 event will raise awareness about kidney disease and living organ donation while providing support for DeVito and her family as she prepares for treatment and a transplant.