From 10:00 am Saturday February 18 to 10:00 am Sunday
February 19 we as the Murkison Family were one of 72 Miracle Families that
participated with the UGA Miracle Dance Marathon (DM). In that time frame, these college students
raised $1.35 Million that was donated to Children’s Miracle Network (CMN) via Children’sHealthcare of Atlanta (CHOA). Our first
DM was in 2015. That year they raised
683K. They almost doubled in 2 years. Certainly impressive. That
number is easy to put in a press release or a website. However – I must say that $1.35 Million is just
one of many things to be impressed about.
Below are the items that are equally impressive if not more IMO:
Miracle Families
Perseverance: That is
the best word to describe the 72 families that had been helped by CHOA participated. Any that wanted to share their stories
did. The students and other family members
were very respectful and engaged to the stories. I don’t
recall the actual scientific diagnosis of most of the stories, but I remember
the stories. One child, named Parker, is about 6
now. His story was featured. When he was
born – he had an ailment that pretty much meant that he had a much smaller than
normal brain. Somehow brain fluids were
filling his head so much that the brain itself could not form properly pre-birth. CHOA saved his life and Parker is now thriving. He runs around and is friendly –
and very very energetic. At the opening
ceremony of DM – Miss Georgia gave a welcome. Parker, came up and in front of the 3000 in attendance, He politely asked Miss Georgia to come sit with him and walked her back to where he was. Of course she went with him. We have met that child's family a few times. They are amazing.
Another Child was treated at CHOA years ago. He now sells Ice cream. Beau Shell is known as Little Ice Cream Dude. He is a young entrepreneur now. Beau Shell had an ice cream stand at the DM. The revenue he made that day went to UGA Miracle. It turns out, Beau was UGA Jr. Homecoming King this past fall.
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| Brian and Beau Shell, "LIL ICE CREAM DUDE" |
One family that I met for the first time was the Trip
Halstead family. Trip was only 2 years
old in October 2012. He was playing outside
at his daycare center when a large branch from a tree fell and hit him. He acquired a TBI. His mom and dad, (Stacey and Mike) have had a
very public journey of his recovery since then.
The story has been all over the Atlanta news as well as nationally. The Facebook page they have created has over
1 million followers. The way they have
handled everything has always been an inspiration to me. So – it was an honor to finally meet them.
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| With the Halsteads |
We got to know the Hopkins family last year. Kelli and Mike are the most amazing
parents. They have had four kids. Three have had special needs. Sadly, Abe and Mary Elizabeth passed away in
2014. We met Micaela and Marlee Ann at
DM16. Brian got engaged to Marlee Ann at
DM16. That engagement lasted a few
months. They live in Covington. For about 6 months, Brian wanted to go to
Covington every weekend morning. We actually did a time or two. Marlee Ann is 14 right now, and has raised $55
for UGA Miracle. That is $55,000. She helped to motivate the group to raise $50
In a 20 minute period to match her total.
The Hopkins spoke Sunday morning.
Awards were presented in honor of Mary Elizabeth and Abe.
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| Brian and Marlee Ann - from 2016 Dance Marathon |
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| Brian Photo Bombing with the Hopkins and Hopkins Family and Family Pals (Courtesy of Kelli Hopkins) |
We gave our story, and had a very positive response. My sister happened to be in Athens and came
to see our story be told. It was great
having her around. When we finished, a student
came up to me and said she was from Statesboro and that the story triggered
some memories for her. She remembered
the story when it happened. We were able
to hear stories from other families we knew from camp TBI as well as thru
previous CMN/ DM events. They set up
a family break room, and so family members got plenty of time to get to know
each other.
Theses stories really put things in
perspective. Perseverance and inspiration is something
that all of these kids have plenty of.
Life is short. 4% is
not enough:
In 2016 – two kids that were at the DM lost a brave fight to
cancer within a few months of the event.
They were both walking around celebrating, sharing, and entertaining in
February. By May – they had passed. Both were cancer warriors.
Both families have made public campaigns that only 4% of
federal cancer research dollars go towards pediatric or children’s cancer research. We
all know that 4% is not enough. Grant
Gossling was one of the two. He was a 4
years old boy running around in a cape at DM16.
His family came to DM17 and shared.
UGA Miracle gave an award in
Grants Honor. The Gossling family has
created a foundation. You can link to it here:
High Expectations.
UGA Miracle raised just over $1 million last year. Every year the main emphasis of the donations
has been the CIRU. That is the department
that we lived in January –February of 2012.
The Therapy gym in the CIRU has now been named the UGA Miracle Gym.
This year, they made a commitment to raise even more than
last year. Anything above $1 million total
would go to the Aflac Cancer Center at CHOA.
Brian being Bmoney:
Brian has an ultra-ego.
He goes by Bmoney. I really do
not know how it got started. However –
most people at UGA Miracle may say they don’t know anyone named Brian
Murkison. With all the kids that participate,
I can see why it would be difficult to know every single one of them. However – if you say Bmoney, and everyone
knows him.
Since it was our third year, I knew that we had a lot of
eyes watching out for him. He would
often disappear from my sight. I never
worried about his safety, but felt like I needed to at least know where he
was. Most of the time, he was hanging
out and taking pictures with a different set of UGA girls. They were all taking selfies together or laughing
at his jokes.
Knowing that this group of people love Brian….err..i mean
Bmoney was an awesome feeling as a dad.
He was pretty much treated like a rock star. (See the talent show.) At
one point, of Bmoneys new friends started counting the hugs he gave. In a one hour period, he gave 168 hugs.
Talent Show:
Certainly my favorite event memory was when Brian belted out
Journeys “Don’t Stop Believing” in the first talent show. Brian had about 1000 students watching and
singing along. Most of them got their phone
lights on and swayed to the music as well.
In the video below you can hear the cheers for
Bmoney. It is worth a watch!!!!
I think about 9 other Miracle kids performed such things as
dancing, joke telling, being a human pretzel, and other singers as well. One of the moist courageous was a 12 or 13
year old girl that got up and said that she was singing a song in honor of one
of her friends from camp that had passed.
I assume that it was a Camp Twin Lakes type camp and that the friend had
similar health situations like her. The
song was Ed Sheerans song “Photograph”.
This girl bravely fought back the tears and showed so much bravery in
the heart felt words of this song. I don’t
think that anyone that watched it had a dry eye.
Family Pals:
Our first DM – we had Ashlyn Belding and Peri Levey assigned
to us as family pals. They are students
that were assigned to us to hang with us during the DM and also encourage us to
come to other events throughout the year.
The second year, Cooper Drose joined us.
This year, Ashlyn and Peri moved to some other leadership roles with the
organization. Caroline Beldon and
Lilliana Bardi joined Cooper as our family pal.
These students have become part of our family
now. They have traveled during breaks to
visit Brian. They have also attended
concerts for Ben in Athens and hung with us during all of our antics at
Braves/Hawks/ Zoo Days/ Trunk or Treat and other times. Ashlyn and Peri are about to graduate, but we
plan to keep in touch. We are proud and
honored to be associated with all five of these wonderful students.
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| Peri Levey, Brian, Ashlyn Belding |
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| Lilliana Bardi, Brian, Caroline Belton, Cooper Drose |
Run by College Students:
The President of the University gave a welcome. Some administrators of the University came
and witnessed or are a part because they are Miracle family members. Outside of that – everything was all about
the students. UGA Miracle has events
throughout the year. The correspondence
for the families for the Braves game, the Trunk or Treat, the complex schedule
of the DM, the AV for talent show, the coordination with family discussions,
the finance folks, all full time students.
I have worked in higher
education administration for almost 20 years.
I am not surprised by what students can accomplish. Certainly the organization as a campus
advisor and some required administration.
By all accounts, it is student run.
They have many different committees to join. They include; Hospital, Finance, Family Relations,
and many more. So – no matter what your skill
or desired activity, this has something you can do. Not sure the number of students that are a
member of UGA Miracle. However, the DM
had over 3000 registered students.
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| Some of the many students that put this on. (Photo by Kelli Hopkins) |
330 Nation Wide
So – the Dance Marathon for CMN has been going on at UGA for
22 years. In 2017, a total of 330
Colleges and Universities are hosting one.
At the same time as the one at UGA, 33 others were going on. In the next few months, we will be
participating in one at both of our employers.
Georgia Tech hosts one on March 4, Georgia State will host its first
ever DM on April 15. We are very
excited to participate in these.
Standing Challenge:
The marathon is 24 hours long. Many students decide to commit to also
participate in the standing challenge.
That is – no sitting for 24 hours.
You can kneel, lean, crawl, but no sitting for 24 hours. We
left Saturday night at around 11:00 pm, and came back Sunday morning around 7
am. By that time, they had been standing
21 hours. I witnessed some very creative
kneeling and leaning at that time. Kudos
to everyone that did that.
Faith:
The organization is solely focused on fundraising and interactions with family and the hospital. It does not have Christian or religious roots. However, many of the family members mentioned their faith in God during the presentations. God is the ultimate healer. Certainly he had a hand in the recovery and healing of all these families. That includes ours. God has a plan for us, and I think he helped lead us to finding this wonderful organization.
CHOA Hour:
At one point, many CHOA doctors and staffers showed up. Brian got to see many of the people that helped him in the early days including his Doctor as well as the Music Therapists and many others. He also saw staffers from the Robotics lab that continually work with him today. A great way for Brian to say thanks – and great way for CHOA staff to say thanks to UGA Miracle.
Circle of Hope
Words truly cannot do this part of the event justice. It is the final event. After the total reveal, they have all 72 of
the families in the middle of a circle.
The students all got a hospital wrist band put on their wrist when they
checked in on Saturday Morning. The
families all take a pair of scissors and cut off the wrist bands for the participants. Lots of symbolism here. I realize that I can in no way come up with
words to explain the emotions at this point of the event. It doesn’t seem to
make sense that just cutting off wristbands can cause such a feeling. I assure you, it does.
Other Amazing things that happened
- In a very unexpected turn of events, one of the Nurses at
Ogeechee Area Hospice that cared for Brian in the darkest of days stopped
by. Her son is now a student at UGA, and
her Niece is our amazing family pal Ashlyn. I cannot imagine what her thoughts were seeing
Brian (Bmoney) doing his thing.
A good friend and former supervisor of mine is now an
administrator at UGA. Her son is one
year older than Brian. She followed our
story from the early days. She had
shared stories of her son praying for Brian.
Michelle moved to Athens in May.
She met Brian in October, when we came in town for the UGA Miracle Trunk
or Treat. She brought her son Jackson as
well as her husband to see our family story talk Saturday night. After our talk, Jackson and Brian spent a
long time chatting. Jackson wrote a
social media post about Brian latter that night. Michelle shared it with me the next day. What was cool was that one of Jacksons friends
saw the picture, and realized she also had met Brian. Brian invited Jackson back for the reveal
the next morning. He came. Jackson and Brian did everything together the
next morning and convinced all the parents involved that we should go get
burgers after the DM ended. I do believe
that Jackson and Brian bonded.
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| Brian and Jackson Howard (photo by Michelle Howard) |
In Conclusion:
The entire experience was awesome. In no way can I capture all everything in this post. When you participate in something that is
bigger than yourself, the rewards are bigger than your expectations. When I see these students doing what they do,
and hear the stories of these families, it makes me want to do more to make the
world better. It gives me hope for the future and the realization that many wonderful people exist. You hear all sorts of
things about millennials. Next time you
hear someone criticize millennials, ask them if they ever stood for 24 hours
and raised $1.35 million dollars for anything.
Can you imagine, these students are doing this at ages 18-22. What will they accomplish when they are 30 or
40?
Thank you UGA Miracle for allowing Bmoney and all the Murkison family to be a part of your wonderful group.
