Even before their child was born, Charlie Cleland’s parents always knew he’d be spending most of his childhood in the hospital. Now nine years old, Charlie has been a longtime patient at the Children’s Hospital of Mississippi in Jackson — the only children’s hospital and level one trauma center in the state. As of now, he has no diagnosis. However, his developmental delays cause many adverse symptoms and create a need for physical, facial and speech therapy.
Charlie’s mother Kimberly said her son sees doctors and a therapist on a regular basis at the hospital. Cleland said despite all of the doctor appointments, Charlie is happy and very active.
The Cleland family has been a part of the annual RebelTHON fundraiser, a 12-hour dance marathon that raises money for the children’s hospital, for almost five years. She and her husband are University of Mississippi graduates, so they believed being a part of this fundraiser was a great way to support the hospital. Charlie was one of 12 Miracle Kids to share their stories at this year’s RebelTHON.
“It’s always very encouraging and fun for my other kids too to get to come up here and be a part of it and see all the students up here raise the money, all they’re doing to raise money and how they support the children’s hospital,” Kimberly Cleland said.
This year’s event, which marked the 10th annual RebelTHON, took place on Saturday Feb. 26 in the Gertrude C. Ford Student Union Ballroom on campus and featured a silent disco, a bounce house, coloring activities and games for both the participants and children. The event also had a Family Room where the Miracle Families could rest and hang out in between dancing.
Participants are not allowed to sit during the marathon and most of the participants are at the event all 12 hours. At the top of each hour, there was a “morale dance” that was choreographed by the RebelTHON student staff to boost participant morale. During the event, each family would share their story to also boost motivation to raise money for the hospital.
This year, RebelTHON broke its participant record and number of participants who reached their dancer minimum with 1,330 participants who raised $227,148.08 overall. RebelTHON has raised over $1.5 million for the children’s hospital over the past decade.
The funds raised through RebelTHON have paid for upgrades to waiting rooms and sofa beds, so that parents could stay with their kids overnight in the hospital. The funds have also paid for a family room in the new hospital tower. This year’s funds will go towards a neonatal ambulance for the hospital.
According to Reagan Stone, the Director of Miracle Family Relations for RebelTHON, “The Miracle Kids are truly the ‘why’ of our organization and hearing their stories at the event serves as the best reminder as to why we’re raising money.”
Kingston Murriel, a nine-year-old patient at the hospital, is another Miracle Kid. His mother, Elizabeth Foster, said he was born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome and has had four heart surgeries at the hospital.
Like Charlie, Kingston was running around like any other kid. Kingston looks like a normal nine-year-old and was very happy and energetic despite having heart surgery just this past November.
Foster works at the hospital in the Community Outreach Program, so she has been both employee and family member at the hospital. Foster and Murriel have been a part of RebelTHON for almost eight years.
“One of the reasons I always love coming back to share our story is because a lot of the students here aren’t familiar with the hospital, they aren’t from Mississippi and that’s one thing that is so unique about our state,” Foster said. “We see how much funding it brings in for the hospital; it is one of the largest donors and fundraisers for the hospital.”
Foster said she and Kingston look forward to RebelTHON every year. She said the families who attend have created their own RebelTHON family, and each event is almost like a reunion for the families.
Harrison Grimes, a senior economics major and president of RebelTHON, said the organization is about making a positive impact in the community. It’s a unique organization that has a very tangible and visible impact.
“RebelTHON works all year to make sure the kids feel special when they come to the event. All of the kids have big and unique personalities and it’s heartwarming to get to know them throughout the year and talk to them at the event,” Grimes said.“Talking to (the families) and hearing their stories just reinforces the impact that we’re having. And (it) drives participants to want to continue to work hard for this wonderful cause.”
