The third annual ROAR & Walk for Little Hearts is set for May 31 at Moraine Valley Community College in Palos Hills.
The event benefits Mended Little Hearts of Chicago, a nonprofit group that supports teens, adults and families dealing with heart ailments.
Chicago chapter cofounder Melanie Toth, 31, said that 20 weeks into her pregnancy, her son Luke, now 6, was diagnosed with a congenital heart defect that required surgery when he was a week old and again at 9 months.
“Little did we know that this was a lot more common than we anticipated,” Toth said. “One in 110 babies is born with a heart defect in the U.S. every year.”
Despite the fact that congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defect, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Toth said she and her husband, Ben, could not find anyone who had the same experience to help them understand what their journey would be like.
“We had this amazing medical staff that took care of our family (but) I would always ask if there was anyone else who had been through this (to talk to us),” Toth said.
Toth said she couldn’t find the support she was seeking, but when Jenny and Aaron Shirley, of Westmont, came to the hospital emergency room and learned their newborn son needed emergency heart surgery, Toth was determined to help them cope.
“At that point, I was kind of able to help this mom, whose family was going to go through the same thing we were just going through, and it felt really good … that through this crazy, horrible situation our family was put into, we were able to do some good,” Toth said.
In 2007, Toth and Jenny Shirley cofounded Mended Little Hearts of Chicago, one of more than 80 Mended Little Hearts national chapters created as a support program to empower people experiencing treatment for heart defects and heart disease, according to a news release.
Toth said the benefit will fund the organization’s monthly peer-to-peer support meetings, educational meetings, Bravery Bags — care bags given to families, teens and adults containing items they can use during their stays in five area hospitals — plus Mended Little Angels memory boxes for the families of those who have lost a child, programs for affected teens and adults, awareness initiatives and advocacy efforts such as newborn screening, among other efforts.
Registration for the walk at Moraine, 9000 W. College Parkway, and donation collections will begin at 9 a.m. for those who do not register online at http://www.walkingforlittlehearts.org. A remembrance ceremony will be at 10 a.m. and a Jazzercise warm-up at 10:15 a.m. The walk begins at 10:30 a.m.
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Strollers, wagons and motorized scooters are allowed. Dogs are not allowed.
Face painting, balloon art, photos and Stitch the Lion, the Chicago chapter’s official mascot, will be part of the after-walk activities. Prizes will be awarded to the team captain who raises the most money, the captain with the best team T-shirt design, and the team captain with the best poster/logo.
Toth said the walk will honor Rose Stonehouse Maslauskas, a heart patient who named the chapter’s mascot and recently died at age 34 while waiting for a heart transplant.
Toth said fundraising supports all of the organization’s programs and activities.
“Because of the success of our walks every year we’ve been able to add another element to our group … (and) to expand our programs,” Toth said.
For more information, visit http://www.walkforlittlehearts.org or mlhchicago.org.
Ginger Brashinger is a freelance reporter for the Daily Southtown.