Mummers Parade organizers hope to use their platform to find a kidney for one of their own
A Fancy Brigade member could die in years without a new kidney. His fellow Mummers are set on not letting that happen.
The Mummers are well-known for their vivacious spirit and penchant for partying, but the coalition of sequined clubs is using its platform this year to help one of their own find a kidney.
Philanthropy isn’t new to the Mummers. It’s actually a significant way the various clubs build community when they are not planning their New Year’s Day parade. Autism, breast cancer, and leukemia are a few of the causes the sequined revelers have rallied around over the years while out of costume. Mum Nation, as they sometimes call themselves, even has a nonprofit called Mummers Against Cancer, which helps fellow members and their immediate families struggling financially due to the disease.
This year, the Mummers have channeled much of their philanthropic efforts to support the Gift of Life Howie’s House, a local nonprofit that houses and aids patients getting organ transplant-related care, and Tom Otto, a Mummer of almost 50 years, who will die within years without a new kidney. The Mummers are set on not letting that happen.
“We are going a little bit above and beyond with this particular one, because there’s an added closeness,” said Anthony Stagliano Jr., the Fancy Brigade Association’s business manager.
Otto, a 53-year-old Mount Laurel resident, was introduced to Mummery through the Satin Slipper, a Fancy Brigade, when he was a kid living in South Philly. He eventually started his own club in 2013 with his brothers, friends, and their daughters.
He was diagnosed with chronic kidney disease three years ago. He was about 500 pounds at the time and feeling sick.
He had to lose significant weight before he would be eligible for a transplant. Since then, he has transformed his life.
With the help of the weight-loss drug Mounjaro, severe calorie restriction, and lifestyle transformation, Otto has lost about 250 pounds.
Otto is undergoing dialysis three times a week. Without a new kidney, he doesn’t expect to live for more than six years.
“I’m scared to death,” said Otto. “I don’t want to say we’re begging, but we’re definitely asking.”
Otto is on the transplant wait list, but his donation team has urged him to do his own outreach to try to find a living donor. He started with family and moved on to the next closest version of that: his fellow Mummers, who have been a constant support.
At this year’s parade, the Mummers encouraged Otto to share his story during the live broadcast. It was a showcase of the Mummers’ reach, Otto said, with a woman from Alabama volunteering to get tested to see if she was a match. The woman ultimately was not an eligible donor, but Otto was in awe that his story found an audience so far away.
For their part, the Mummers are not giving up on finding Otto a donor.
Using the Mummers’ platform to raise organ donation awareness
On Thursday, the Fancy Brigade Association announced Live! Casino & Hotel as the title sponsor for the 2026 Fancy Brigade Fest and Finale at the Convention Center, and a minimum two-year agreement that would take financial pressure off the association, as far as the annual rush to fundraise is concerned.
The announcement is a bit of boring accounting, yet a big deal for the Mummers Parade, which embarked on a journey of financial self-sufficiency in 2022. During the 30 years prior, longtime partner PHL17 found its own broadcast sponsors to telecast the event. When negotiations fell through that year, the Mummers had to take on those fundraising duties. That’s when Live! Casino & Hotel, which had opened in South Philly the year prior, stepped in. Live! has remained an enthusiastic partner. It is the title sponsor of the overall parade and the Fancy Brigade Fest and Finale.
“We really believe in giving our dollars back into the community where our own team members and our customers live and work,” said Jake Joyce, senior vice president of marketing for Live!
Still, while the television cameras were still rolling, Stagliano made sure to plug Otto and a Gift of Life fundraiser slated for Nov. 30.
“We always want to make sure that people understand that it all starts with our community,” Stagliano said. “It all starts with philanthropy. If we don’t do those things, and if we don’t participate in those things, then we would be going against all of the things that we believe in as a nonprofit organization.”