BENTONVILLE -- Some Fulbright Junior High School seventh-graders have organized a 5K race this weekend to benefit a classmate with glaucoma.
The race begins at 8 a.m. Saturday and follows a course in the streets around the school at 5303 S.W. Bright Road. The public is invited to participate. Runners may register by visiting www.register-wizard.com and clicking on "events" near the top of the page. The cost to register is $25.
Cole Phillips, a Fulbright student, developed glaucoma at an early age and is losing his eyesight. He has had more than 20 surgeries to try to correct his condition, according to a news release from the school.
Half of the profit from the race will go to Cole's family to help with expenses related to his treatment. The other half will go to the Glaucoma Foundation.
Sai Chittemsetty, Blake Sooter, A.C. Macartney, Conner Baese, Kate Pinkerton, Lydia Pehlman, Christa Davenport, Ashley Lestina, Erika Lever, Jack Burgess and Lasya Vaddadi are the students leading the effort to organize Saturday's race. Nick Smallridge, a seventh-grade pre-Advanced Placement English teacher, also worked on the race.
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that in most cases produce increased pressure within the eye, according to the foundation's website. That pressure is caused by a back-up of fluid, which can damage the optic nerve. There is no cure. Vision lost from the disease cannot be restored, according to the foundation.
Childhood glaucoma is relatively rare. Primary congenital glaucoma, a kind of glaucoma that affects children between birth and 3 years old, occurs in the general population at a rate of about one in 10,000 births, according to the American Association for Pediatric Ophthalmology and Strabismus.
NW News on 04/17/2015