Braveheart Race raises funds
Around 230 runners participated in this year’s Braveheart Race for a boy named Rustin, raising funds for needed treatment and therapy.
The Braveheart Race is put on each year at USU by the 860th Cadet Wing of the Air Force ROTC to help a local family in need.
Rustin, 5, was born with cortical dysplasia, a condition where the right half of his brain didn’t fully develop in utero. Rustin has limited use of the left half of his body, cannot hear out of his left ear and has lost much of the hearing in his right.
“Each year, the focus and the cause of Braveheart has been a young child with a medical condition, partly to raise money for the family and partly to raise awareness of that condition,” said Jacob Singleton, a senior in engineering and ROTC cadet.
Race registration cost $15, and runners received a T-shirt and entry into a raffle. More tickets are sold during the race. Businesses donated $1,000 dollars worth of prizes from gift certificates to gift baskets. Singleton, who was in charge of this year’s race, said the community has been very supportive of the race each year.
“That’s always been overwhelming to see the kind of involvement that businesses are willing to do,” he said.
Jeanie Jones, Rustin’s mother, said the money will be used to buy an iPad with communication apps.
Rustin has a velcro binder with pictures he can use to communicate, but it’s very limited. His parents are also looking into getting a FM transmitter and receiver system that would allow him to communicate better with them. The money will also help cover the cost of the large commute from their home in Malad, Idaho to Logan for treatment.
Rustin is receiving therapy from USU’s Sound Beginnings, a preschool for those with hearing impairment and learning difficulties. Singleton said they contacted Sound Beginnings knowing there are a lot of children facing disabilities and medical challenges and were referred to Rustin.
“I think he’s in the right spot right now, being over at Sound Beginnings,” said Laura Hess, a graduate in deaf education who works at Sound Beginnings.
Hess said the Sound Beginnings program is good for Rustin because it focuses on him listening and talking, and he’s able to receive individual attention.
Shannon Peters is Rustin’s graduate student teacher at Sound Beginnings. She said Rustin is finally getting into the therapy and classroom routine.
“He’s an amazing little boy, just brightens the room,” she said. “His family has high hopes for him.”
Jones said the biggest challenge was going through the years and not knowing he had a problem. Though Rustin was born with cortical dysplasia, he wasn’t diagnosed until he was nearly 3 years old. His symptoms only became apparent over time, when his mother noticed he wasn’t using the left side of his body.
Doctors are baffled that Rustin can walk at all, Jones said. Because of this, doctors haven’t been helpful in telling the family what to do.
“He should be a vegetable in a wheelchair, but he’s not,” she said. “We just take it one day at a time.”
For Jones, the Braveheart run shows the family that they’re not alone in wanting to help Rustin.
Rustin and his family all participated in the 5K. Past beneficiaries of the Braveheart run, children named Mason and Melanie, were also there with their families. This was the fourth year of the Braveheart run.
– mburnett@aggiemail.usu.edu
@BurnettMaile