The Third Annual Lily’s Heart Walk will take place on Saturday, Oct. 29 at the Chili Fest Park in Linden. Gates will open at 8 a.m. with the walk starting at 10 a.m. The goal of the event is to raise money to help babies that are born with heart defects.
All of proceeds raised at the event go to Children’s of Alabama to the heart unit and the group gets to decide whether the money goes to research, enrichment or treatment options for the kids.
Casey Morgan, founder of Lily’s Heart, was moved to start organization after her daughter Lily was born with heart defects.
“We wanted to take the negatives that happened to us and turn them into positives for someone else.”
Lily’s Heart also provides information and counseling to families going through the process of overcoming congenital heart disease (CHD).
In the first two years of the Heart Walk, a few thousand dollars were raised. However, now that Lily’s Walk has received official non-profit organization status the goal is beat the $3000 raised last year.
According to Morgan, one in 100 babies are born with birth defects and many don’t know the heart diseases even exist, which is why it is important to spread awareness of CHD.
“I didn’t know there was anything like this until my daughter was born and they took her from away from me,” said Morgan. “More kids die to CHD than they do to cancer. So we want to spread awareness for CHD and we want to raise funds to help research for CHD.”
Morgan went on to note that the American Heart Association gives less than a penny a day to CHD research.
The Heart Walk is one of the main events to help raise money, but Lily’s Heart has also done fish fries, car washes and other little fundraisers throughout the year.
The organization also does a toy drive for kids spending Christmas in the hospital and a toiletry drive for parents in the hospital with the kids. Morgan mentioned that some parents don’t bring what they need, because they don’t anticipate being at a hospital for an extended period of time.
“Every hear matters, so we want to make sure every heart is aware of what’s going on.”
Registration for a guaranteed t-shirt in a given size is due by Friday, Oct. 21.
Also during the Heart Walk, there will be free heart screenings for children because not all children are diagnosed at birth for heart defects as it wasn’t required until recently.
Aside from the walk, there will be a costume contest and Trick or Treat for the kids. Also, there will be an auction, food, games and vendors as well.
For more information and to register, visit www.lilysheart.org.