Team Madison is Back: Team Madison's Marathon and Pancake and Sausage Breakfast to benefit children's cancer treatment and research

  • By Denice Rovira Hazlett
  • September 13, 2012
  • 376
                        
Summary: In 2011, three local women organized a successful benefit pancake and sausage breakfast and ran an emotional marathon in Memphis, Tenn., raising nearly $6,000 for pediatric cancer treatment and research. This year, they're off and running again. Story: Young Danny Thomas was an unknown in the entertainment industry, one of ten children born to Lebanese parents and raised in Toledo, Ohio just after the turn of the century. While at a church service in Detroit, Thomas was so moved by the service, he dropped his last seven dollars into the collection plate. Knowing he didn't even have enough money to pay the hospital bills for his soon-to-be-born child, he prayed that God would help provide for him and his family, promising, should he find success, to honor God by building a hospital where sick children would be cared for regardless of race, religion or ability to pay. Before long, Danny Thomas became one of the most beloved entertainers of his day, producing popular television program like The Dick Van Dyke and Andy Griffith Shows. In 1962, Thomas kept his promise, founding St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn. Today, St. Jude's doctors and scientists have pioneered treatments that have helped push survival rates for childhood cancers from less than 20 percent when the hospital opened in 1962 to 80 percent. The work St. Jude's does is both worldwide, treating children from all 50 states and many countries, and local, touching those who live right here in Holmes County. Lisa Kurtz, of Glenmont, made a promise, too. Kurtz, who lost her young daughter, Madison, to a tumor in her brainstem in 2006, had been touched by the personal attention she'd received by a St. Jude's researcher following Madison's death. Kurtz knew that research findings at St. Jude's are shared freely with doctors and scientists all over the world, and that any child who has been diagnosed with cancer has been affected by their work. In fact, when Madison was being treated at Akron Children's Hospital, the two hospitals kept in touch throughout the course of Madison's treatment. "When their research becomes an accepted protocol for treatment," Kurtz says, "they share that information freely with other hospitals." And what's even more amazing is that at St. Jude's, named the number one pediatric cancer care hospital in the country, based on a Parents Magazine survey of more than 75 children's hospitals nationwide, no family receiving treatment ever pays for anything. That's because of the generosity and drive of people like Lisa Kurtz. In 2012, Kurtz, an avid runner, and her two running buddies Kim Tish, of Millersburg, and Becki Bridenthal, of Nashville, made a commitment, as Team Madison, to become what St. Jude calls "Heroes" by registering for the St. Jude Memphis Marathon in Memphis, Tennessee. In addition to the marathon, the women organized a benefit sausage and pancake breakfast held at the Holmes County Training Center with a goal of raising $2,500 as a team. When all was said and done, Team Madison raised nearly $6,000 for pediatric cancer research and treatment. Running last year's marathon, Kurtz says, was very emotional. "Mile 4 took us through St. Jude's hospital campus," Kurtz remembers. "Families were they to thank us for being Heroes, for the efforts we were putting forth to help them pay for their treatment. "Sick kids were lined up along the route with their IV poles, wearing masks, cheering us on," Kurtz say. "I was in tears." The three runners vowed they would participate again, so, true to their promise, Team Madison will be running in the 2012 St. Jude Memphis Marathon on Saturday, Dec. 6. The original team has been joined by Shannon Rohr, of Millersburg, who was inspired by Team Madison's story. Kurtz' mother, Demitra Wiper, of Stow, was so moved by last year's events that she is in-training to walk the event's 5K. Wiper is in her mid-60's. Kurtz and her team are hoping this year's all-you-can-eat benefit breakfast will be even more successful than the last. This year's breakfast, to be held on Saturday, Sept. 22 from 7-11 a.m. at the Family Life Center in Millersburg (formerly the Grocery Bag), will once again feature delicious pancakes and tasty whole-hog sausage from a hog purchased at the Holmes County Fair. The meal also includes juice, coffee (donated by Jitters Coffee House of Millersburg), and real maple syrup, made and donated by Allison Sommers of Millersburg. Kurtz says some people are reluctant to support the work of St. Jude's because they don't see it as a local organization. She asks people to abandon that mindset and realize how widespread St. Jude's work really is. "The biggest thing I want to get across is that they help everyone, regardless of ability to pay," Kurtz says. "If anyone's life has been touched by childhood cancer, no matter where they live, they've benefited from the work of St. Jude's." For more information about the benefit pancake and sausage breakfast on Saturday, Sept. 22, call 330-465-4981. To find out more about St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital, visit stjude.org.


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