Runners give student a medal for mettle

Wearing her new medal, Katie Tyree is surrounded by well wishers just after sunrise Wednesday in Murray Park, including Brenda Ngozi Stallings (far left), Ali Miller (at Tyree’s right), her mother, Carol Tyree (behind Miller), and (seated) the 2014 Medals4Mettle honoree, Cole Parker of Conway.
Wearing her new medal, Katie Tyree is surrounded by well wishers just after sunrise Wednesday in Murray Park, including Brenda Ngozi Stallings (far left), Ali Miller (at Tyree’s right), her mother, Carol Tyree (behind Miller), and (seated) the 2014 Medals4Mettle honoree, Cole Parker of Conway.

The sun rose over a swollen river and highlighted the sheen of sweat on happy faces. A cheer went up.

• Happy, because these athletes had talked themselves out of cozy beds before dawn and made it to Murray Park in time to celebrate National Running Day with 100 or more fellow travelers -- and so they had Wednesday's workout in the bag.

photo

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Katie Tyree (left) and Ali Miller

• Cheering, because the annual community fun run coincided with a brief but poignant award ceremony.

On behalf of Medals4Mettle, runner Brenda Ngozi Stallings hung a fancy medal she won at the Mississippi Blues Half Marathon around the neck of 16-year-old Katie Tyree of Prescott.

The athletes applauded Tyree for her perseverance and heart -- and for her decision to attend boarding school in the fall even though her autism would make it easier to stay at home.

"She is brave," said Ali Miller, program manager at Camp Aldersgate.

Miller met Tyree eight years ago, when both of them were new to the Little Rock nonprofit, which provides camping adventures for children with special needs.

"When she first came out to camp, she wouldn't shower by herself, was very homesick, could not be around a group of people," Miller said. Today, "she's a leader in the cabins. She helps oversee all of our kids and helps them make sure they're engaged and involved."

Tyree is especially helpful to campers who are homesick.

Her mother, Carol Tyree, feels "very lucky, very fortunate" that her daughter has above average intelligence and that her autism was discovered while she was little.

"We caught it early. That was the key. And then with therapy and the camps, it helped her so much," Tyree said.

She was not surprised that her daughter was accepted to spend

her junior and senior years as a boarder at the Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts in Hot Springs.

The surprise was that she accepted her acceptance.

"It is just a huge accomplishment," Miller said. "It's going to come with challenges for her, and she's aware of that, but she's ready to take them on."

Katie Tyree said she has made a lot of friends over the years by attending camp sessions, which have challenged her to leave home and try to understand and cooperate with strangers.

"I've just learned to do different activities, become confident, talking to people," she said. "I'm really interested in, like, animal science, and I want to be a veterinarian when I grow up."

Carol Tyree said since there are no veterinary degree programs in-state, if Katie still wants to pursue that career after sampling other subjects in high school, she will have to move far from home. Boarding "is like a little stepping stone for her to get ready for college."

"Or maybe by then there will be one in Arkansas," Tyree said. She added, "This is going to be harder on me than on her."

Athletes donate their marathon, half-marathon or triathlon medals to Medals4Mettle, which then presents the medals to nonrunners who show unusual courage and perseverance by bravely facing chronic diseases, handicaps or similar challenges.

In Little Rock, donors can drop off medals at Rock City Running, 10300 N. Rodney Parham Road, or Go! Running, 1819 N. Grant St. More information is at medals4mettle.org.

ActiveStyle on 06/08/2015

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