Hands Across Downtown - Verge

the life of one child births hope for many through stacey’s crusade

Thirteen days can hold a lot of pain. A single day can be the fulcrum of years-a wedding, a promotion, a birth; but each new day with the same person can mean a subtle shift in direction till at the end of thirteen days, one finds her perspective has completely changed.

This is the story Stacey Haskins tells. In her thirteen days, Margaret Bowen McElreath broke into Stacey’s life and left everything changed. At the time, Stacey was working in Atlanta and helping her expectant sister Carrie prepare the nursery. When the baby, Bowen, was born, her heart and lungs didn’t work properly. Three days later, she was taken to MCG’s Children’s Medical Center in Augusta where she received care from pediatric surgeons like Dr. Robyn Hatley. Ten days of struggle passed, and then Bowen’s time on earth was complete.

Stacey would say that one purpose for that time is clear: her niece’s life opened her eyes. She asked to be baptized two days before Bowen died; her family’s trial by fire ignited in her deep passion to help people live well. She started searching for something to do with her drive. A year later, she moved back to her hometown of Augusta and started working on the first Heart and Sole 5k. Heart and Sole, Inc. was born out of death.

This year’s Heart and Sole 5k Run and Walk will take place on March 7, 2009. The course begins and ends at MCG Children’s Medical Center and winds through downtown. All proceeds from the event go to benefit “children with special hearts,” a designation made purposefully vague both to root the dream in its most basic goals and to broaden beneficiary field for the event.

The money gets scattered among a group of folks who collaborate on behalf of children with congenital heart disorders (CHD’s), and their families. The Medical College of Georgia receives a bit of the pot, and MCG Children’s Medical Center, and Camp Strong Hearts and the Children’s Heart Program Volunteer Council. They participate in what Haskins calls “balanced healthcare,” involving education, research, surgeons, recreation, and other support with the primary goal of helping more CHD patients enjoy healthy and full lives.

The second aim of Heart and Sole, says Haskins, is to provide the community with a project. “GO LOCAL,” she urges, when asked how best to support non-profits. She said it to me, to her sponsors, and to the clubs and student groups she speaks to every week. Heart and Sole is an example of an organization that lives above the politics that have destroyed groups that depend on outside sources for support.

Haskins’ vision is simple. It occurred to her this fall during the gloomy days of bank failures and bailouts: Augusta businesses and individuals may sponsor Heart and Sole directly through financial or in-kind donations, or they can start paying Augustans for their goods and services. These in turn sponsor the non-profit sector themselves. It’s capitalism at its best, the trickle-down effect on a level so small that its benefits can actually be detected.

People have gotten behind Heart and Sole. The first year, the race had 476 runners; last year, there were 604. This year the goal is 1000. Many physicians associated with MCG and the CMC, including one of Bowen’s surgeons, Dr. Hatley, are supporting Stacey with advice, financial gifts, and by running in the race themselves. 75 other individuals volunteer their time throughout the year, and many more uncounted who just come to cheer on the runners the day of the race. She’s backed by hundreds of high schoolers who participate in her Straight From the Heart change drives. “I love to see kids helping kids,” bubbles Stacey.

Now she’s got to get through all of February, with registration forms to be logged and final details handled. But Stacey is buoyed by a sense of purpose cemented by small, meaningful signs-things she might not have seen four years ago, like her discovery in the planning stages that the walk from her house to the cemetery where Bowen is buried is exactly five kilometers, the length of the race.

Tragedy has a way of sharpening our senses and focusing our aims. I admire Stacey’s ability to see it all as one long, intentional road from Bowen’s deathbed to the race tags that must be printed today. Five years ago, my 25-year-old sister suffered a stroke because of a hole that had been in her heart, undetected, since the day of her birth. I think to myself, what if things had gone differently? What if my sister had been the recipient of care like these MCG doctors provide? Suddenly the statistic 8 out of every 1000 children does not seem so dramatic; a heart defect can affect anyone. And there is no telling what a few dollars or a race well-run could mean for the lives we have left to live.

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