IMH Newsletter -March 2011

March 2011

Vol 6, Issue 3

It's My Heart Newsletter

Keep the Beat: 2011 National It's My Heart CHD Awareness Walk

Walk 7
February 19th the National chapter of IMH in Houston held its 5th annual CHD awareness walk. Over 4,000 walkers participated this year with many volunteers willing to help. To this date, we have raised over $150,000! Donations will still be accepted through March 31st and can be given at www.itsmyheart.org.

We are so thankful for our sponsors who brought in over $50,000 for the event! We couldn't have done this without them!

We are also thankful for KPRC's Rachel McNeiell who served as the master of ceremonies for the walk and also for the support of Texas Children's chief of surgery, Dr. Charles Fraser who was our honored guest.

We'd like to recognize the top 5 fundraisers and teams for 2010:

Top Five Fundraisers:
1. Shalonda Lowther
2. Jeffrey Johnston
3. Marisol Esquivel
4. Kathy Hopper
5. Heather Gay

Top Five Teams:
1. Team Emma
2. Team Colin
3. Team Henry
4. Aaron's Buckaroos
5. Abigail's Angel's

You can still make donations towards teams or individuals till March 31st. Click here to donate now! It's not too late!

               Walk 1
              Walk 3
                 Walk 2
                  walk 5
                  Walk 6

We are already preparing for the 2012 walk--mark your calendars for February 18th for next year! We are going to have a t-shirt contest and have people submit their designs by January 1st. The winner will be announced January 15th. The winner will receive donated t-shirts for the entire team!

Until next year, keep the beat!

In This Issue:

CHD Birthdays

Family Matching

It's My Heart Chapters

IMH in the News

Visit the NEW CHD Community

www.CHDCOMMUNITY.org

Check out our new online community. The CHD Community was created for those affected by Congenital Heart Defects in order to have a place to share, meet others, seek/give advice and more. It is also FREE to join!

For safety purposes you do not have access to see all of the forums until you become a registered user. Please consider joining today and start connecting with others affected by the #1 birth defect. Some of the forums you will have access to once joining are:

-Expecting a CHD Newborn
-Hearts Remembered
-CHD Store
-Surgeries and Hospital Stays
-Adults with CHD

.................and more.

As part of the registration process you must be approved by our Admin Team. You will receive an email from info@chdcommunity.org that will contain two questions for you to answer and reply to in order to ensure as much as possible that our community members are truly those affected by CHD. We ask that you simply respond within two business days and after review we will either approve your registration or send you an email for more information. If you do not respond within the specified time we will assume that you might be a SPAM registrant and block your email address and possibly even your IP address. Should this happen out of error please contact our Site Admins at info@chdcommunity.org.

Please understand that these precautions are for the safety of our members.

We hope to have you join us and start connecting with others very soon!

From the heart,

CHD Community Admins

Follow Us on the Web

Sharing our Journeys

Share your story with It's My Heart! We want to hear about your Heart Journey. Your story may be selected to be highlighted in our monthly national newsletter! Just send us your story written in a few paragraphs-be sure to include your (or your child's) diagnosis (how and when), your treatment plan, and an update on how you (or your child) is doing now. Please send a picture to go with your story and submit it at heartstories@itsmyheart.org

CHD in the News

13-Year-Old Vintner's First Wine Is for Kids With Heart Disease

By Jenny Inglee

From Take Part.com

13 yr Wine Heart

Thirteen-year-old Colby Groom was born with a hole in his heart. After recovering from two grueling open-heart surgeries, he became a champion for other children with heart disease.

Recently, Colby enlisted his father, renowned winemaker Daryl Groom, to help his cause. Daryl tells TakePart, "We put two of our passions together," and made a charitable wine-Colby Red.

When Colby asked his dad if they could make a bottle of wine together, Daryl at first "shrugged him off a bit," thinking "there was no way he's going to keep up the routine of what it takes to make a wine."

Colby, as his father has been forced to admit, is a "persistent young man." The son kept pressing, telling Daryl he wanted to make the wine and donate the profits to heart research.

The two dove in and created a red wine that Daryl describes as "soft, velvety, silky, round and juicy."

The wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Zinfandel, Syrah, Petite Sirah and Merlot.

Daryl says Colby Red "reflected to me the tenderness we felt for Colby as we were going through the whole lot."

The velvety blend costs $12.99 and can be found at your local Walgreens-if they sell beer and wine-and online at Cellar 360.

The sale of the wine started selling this February-for American Heart Month-and Daryl estimates, "we will be close to raising $100,000 for heart related charities" when March rolls in.

Funds so far have been donated to the American Heart Association, and the Grooms have earmarked future donations for St. Jude's Childrens Hospital and UCSF Pediatric Heart Center, the hospital where Colby had his second heart surgery.

The Grooms also hope to fund individual causes.

Daryl says: Colby has "quite openly said if there's a kid out there who's got heart disease like I had, and his family can't afford medical care, we want to be able to help."

Colby has "always thought out of the box," his father says. "In a lot of ways, he's a normal 13-year-old, but he just gets these ideas, and he has this persistence. Before you know it, you're going with it."

CHD in the Media

6-Year-Old with Heart Defect Plays Darth Vader in Super Bowl Ad

From nbclosangeles.com

Darth Vader VW

A 6-year-old heart patient from Children's Hospital Los Angeles appeared in a Super Bowl commercial Sunday, playing Darth Vader in a car commercial.

Max Pagehasm, who is also part of the cast of "The Young and the Restless" was the little "man behind the Darth Vader mask'' in a Volkswagen ad that aired during Super Bowl XLV.

Max took off his mask Monday on TODAY. He said he had never seen Star Wars, so he didn't know a lot about the character he was playing.

In 24 hours, the number of YouTube hits to the TV commercial -- created by LA-based Deutsch Inc. -- went from 1.5 million on Thursday to more than 7 million on Friday. The number of views reached more than 13.7 million Sunday evening.

Make that, 15.6 million Monday morning.

"I can't even keep up with the messages and the calls," his mother, Jennifer, said. "It's just overwhelming."

When Max was just 4 months old, he was diagnosed with Tetralogy of Fallot, a congenital heart defect. His parents, Buck and Jennifer Page, brought Max to Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, where he received a pacemaker.

"Max's prognosis going forward is very good,'' said Dr. Michael Silka, head of the hospital's Division of Cardiology and Max's pediatric cardiologist. "He can essentially have normal activity and with careful care, a full life is a reasonable expectation.''

Max's parents see the attention as an opportunity to reach out to parents whose children suffer from heart conditions.

"When we first received the diagnosis, we were lost,'' Buck Page said.

Going through the experience, they learned how traumatic it can be as a parent of a child with a serious ailment.

They said they hoped that in sharing their experience, they can help other parents of sick children understand they are not alone.

"Before our experience with Max, I would walk through the hospital and see sick children and be afraid to look at them,'' Buck Page said. "Now, I make a point to look them all in the eye and say, 'Hello.'"

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