a walk to remember
written by Kelsey Mitchener
Little Finley Ellison was named for one of his dad’s favorite football coaches. He loved bath
time and hated his stroller. When he passed away last year, he was just over 100 days old.
That weekend, Samantha Eddington, a
nursing education graduate student at
IWU’s Lexington branch, was running a
5K race with her best friend, Stacie Wilson,
an ultrasound supervisor at an OB/GYN
office. The two are friends and neighbors to
Finley’s parents, Crissy and Dwayne.
“Finley had died only a few days before and
we were all just grieving so much for their
family,” Eddington remembered. “We are
all runners/joggers. Stacie and I thought it
would be nice to organize a 5K and name
it after Finley. We had never done anything
like this before but we knew we wanted to
do something to honor his life and to give
the Ellison family something positive to
look forward to. When Stacie came up with
the idea, it seemed a perfect fit.”
That idea on a Saturday in May turned
into the first annual Finley 5K Run/Walk
for SIDS Awareness. SIDS—Sudden Infant
Death Syndrome—is the leading cause of
death in babies, like Finley,
under one year. According
to the Center for Disease
Control and Prevention,
about seventy children die unexpectedly
of sleep-related causes every week; some
figures say up to 4,500 annually.
“We are trying to turn this tragedy into
something the Ellisons can focus on, and
be excited about, in honor of their son
Finley,” the two friends explained.
So they jumped in. “Stacie and I basically
organized the entire Finley 5K,” Eddington
admitted. “I’m not gonna lie; it was a rough
four months! It was a long process. We had
to go before city council, check with police
departments, get advice about timing, get
sponsors, prizes...”
But Eddington said it was worth the effort.
“It turned out to be such a huge success. We
expected about 100 people and would have
been happy with that,” she said, explaining that in her small town of Georgetown,
Kentucky, races typically cap out at 80-100
participants. But registration more than
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doubled in size in just three days and over
1,300 people came out for the race on September 7, 2013, including 920 racers. “We
have no idea what happened,” she marveled. “It went insane! I was honestly part
of something larger than myself. So few
times do you ever get to be part of something like that.”
“The Finley 5K race was the highlight of
my year, seeing our vision come to life
that day just the way we planned,” Wilson
agreed. “What a celebration of life it was.”
It was also the start of an ongoing, larger
movement in the community to support
SIDS research and awareness. Efforts have
ranged from bake sales and lemonade
stands to fishing tournaments and football
helmet decals, with the Facebook page
originally created for the 5K serving as the
efforts’ active hub. The Ellisons are also in
the process of establishing Finley’s Foundation, which would increase the visibility
and reach of these initiatives.
“The race has become a healing
force for us and we can’t thank
Stacie and Samantha enough
for this conduit of our grief,”
said Dwayne. “This event and
the events for the future give
us something to look forward
to and focus on instead of the
negative. We can feel like