“This year for my birthday, I want to give rather than receive.” That is how the letter from 11-year-old Ellie started out. She went on to describe in the letter why. “I think it would be nice to give a child my age or younger some money to help them find a cure.” With a simple letter to her parents describing why she prefers donation in lieu of birthday presents this year, Ellie Harrington just changed her world and ours.
It was a year ago when Ellie was in the backyard practicing. Her sport is competitive cheerleading, and she takes practice seriously. So on this fateful day, Ellie was perfecting a component of her sport – tumbling. Maybe her focus faltered or her mind wandered, but something didn’t go as she planned and that last tumble was literal. She landed wrong and hit her head hard.
A concussion was the diagnosis, but it came days after the original misstep. Ellie tried to fight the headaches and keep them to herself, but they were getting worse. According to her mom, “Had we known more, maybe her concussion would not have turned into a debilitating condition called Post Concussion Syndrome because we could have acted sooner.” And so for the past 11 months, Ellie wakes up each day knowing the chances are good that she will have to suffer through one or more agonizing headaches.
Parents Stacey and Pete Harrington have a little girl who is tough, but still just a little girl with a head that aches, but a heart that cares. Whether or not Ellie has ever heard of turning lemons into lemonade, she decided to do just that, in her own unique way. On a mission to raise money, Ellie started by first sacrificing her birthday presents for research cash. But no matter how generous her friends and relatives, the birthday sacrifice was not enough. So, she started making T-shirt scarves and offered them for sale.
In just a months’ time, Ellie has already raised $1,656 for the Methodist Sports Medicine Concussion Foundation. Begging and borrowing old T-shirts to fuel her fundraising enterprise caught the attention of the physicians at Methodist Sports Medicine. She was invited to the Brady Sports Medicine Awards Banquet last month and was grandly recognized.
Ellie took it upon herself to make sure her birthday wish would come true. You can help with T-shirts, cash or encouragement: [email protected].
