Three Bears Fitness is about reaching your personal health and fitness goals, but it is also very much about community.

One of our members lost her son, Charlie, and we are running this 5K together to support Ronald McDonald House Charities in memory of him. You can run with us on June 10th at 8am at Ferrara Pan Fitness Factory (1525 Circle Avenue, Forest Park, IL) or anytime on your own using the JustMove App event: https://justmoveapp.app.link/wOj7zJzNqzb

This is Charlie's story:

At 41 weeks pregnant and on my 29th birthday, I went into labor with my first baby. Delivery was complicated, to put it simply, and my son was born unresponsive. As one team sutured me and wheeled me to recovery following a cesarean section, another team was saving my baby's life, transporting him to a hospital with the highest level of neonatal care. Several days later, I met my son, Charlie, for the first time in the NICU: a place no parent ever wants to be. Babies end up in the NICU all the time, I told myself. Babies who are premature, sick, ones who just need a little extra TLC before heading out into the world. And our baby was born term, with a full head of hair and leg rolls that suggested he would be just fine.

Days went by, and we learned about every wire, beep, and flashing light keeping Charlie alive. We desperately clung to the hope that they could save him, while also recognizing death was a very real possibility. Charlie lived for six days.

From the moment we arrived at the hospital and throughout our time there, Ronald McDonald House made sure we were fed, had the resources we needed, and offered us a place to sleep so that we could remain close even throughout the night. Their support made us feel cared for and allowed us to focus solely on Charlie.

There is a less than 1% chance a baby dies in the way I lost my son. What makes the soul-crushing grief worse is the way our culture deals with death, especially when it's an out-of-order loss like that of a child. People don't want to believe that a chubby baby born in the safe confines of a hospital can die anyway. So, they get weird. Act like nothing happened. Search for hope or reason. If we consider stillbirth, miscarriage, and other types of loss and death surrounding birth and pregnancy, this network of grief grows exponentially. I have had the misfortune of experiencing both miscarriage and infant death, which is why I am deeply passionate about shattering the taboos around grief and encouraging others to be comfortable sitting in the sadness. It's ok to just say, "this sucks".

So ... I invite you to run with me. Let's run to support Ronald McDonald House, raise awareness of pregnancy loss and infant death, and in honor of those whose memories will motivate us.

Read more about our story here: https://medium.com/@khpetersen

Thank You,

Kayla, Charlie's Mom

Ronald McDonald House charities believe when a child is sick, a family is sick. They exist so families can get better together. Each night, they keep 162 families close to their hospitalized child through our Ronald McDonald Houses and Ronald McDonald Family Rooms, enabling families to access the care their child needs.