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Oct 23, 2009 7:50 pm US/Eastern
Good 4 You: Medals 4 Mettle
MIAMI (CBS4) ―
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Runners are donating their hard-earned prize medals to be given to these sick children who are winning battles of their own.
CBS
In this edition of "Good 4 You"
CBS4 is saluting runners in South Florida who are helping children win their own race by handing out well-deserved medals.
"How are you guys doing today," said Bill Luebke, to a room full of sick children at the UM/Jackson Regional Memorial Medical Center.
Luebke is the regional coordinator for "Medals 4 Mettle." He came with a couple of other runners who have collected medals from other athletes to donate to the children.
"They understand that this is something special, and they feel like someone else is in the fight with them," said Luebke of the children's reaction to receiving the medals. The "Medals 4 Mettle" is an initiative started in Indianapolis by a runner to hand out actual medals to children and adults running a different kind of race.
Tishiyah Pierre is one of these children.
"You don't like having to come here do you," asked
CBS4's Jorge Estevez to Tishiyah. "No, because I don't want to be sick and stuff," she answered.
The 8-year-old girl is battling Sickle Cell, a blood condition that requires transfusions, which she receives at the Holtz Children's Hospital at UM/Jackson Memorial Medical Center.
"It is hard, especially when she is admitted into the hospital" said Presley Pierre, Tishiyah's father.
Pierre is a single dad and is grateful for these champions who recognize his daughter's love of sports.
So why give up a hard earned medal?
"It's an easy thing for someone to say, 'I have done six marathons, I don't need six marathons medals, because I know what I have done.' People have cheered me on for those. I want to cheer someone else on for their battle against a disease,' said Luebke.
Doctors agree these children need to feel like everyone else.
"Sometimes they cannot play like the other kids do and so anything that you can do to brighten their day is great," said Dr. Ofelia Alvarez.
And once the children receive the medals, it is easy to see how athletes can just give them up. So far, they have donated 35 medals in South Florida.
More info at:
http://www.medals4mettle.org/
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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