Jacksonville memorial run to benefit Ronald McDonald House

Linda and Stan Valley hold photos of their late son, Brian, and a plaque from the memorial run they have 
established in his name. The Brian Valley Memorial 5K+1 will be run April 25 in Jacksonville.
Linda and Stan Valley hold photos of their late son, Brian, and a plaque from the memorial run they have established in his name. The Brian Valley Memorial 5K+1 will be run April 25 in Jacksonville.

JACKSONVILLE — For the third consecutive year, Linda and Stan Valley are asking people to go the extra mile in memory of their son, Brian, and to support the Little Rock Ronald McDonald House.

The Brian Valley Memorial 5K+1, a four-mile race in Jacksonville, will be held April 25. In the past two years, more than $24,000 in proceeds from the race have been donated to the Ronald McDonald House, an organization dear to the Valleys’ hearts.

Brian Valley was born on Aug. 18, 1987, when Stan, Linda and their older son, Aaron, were living in upstate New York. Stan was stationed there with the United States Air Force.

The day after Brian was born, a nurse noticed that the infant’s belly was distended. The small hospital was not equipped to treat Brian’s condition, diagnosed as a total bowel blockage, so Brian had to be transferred to a hospital in Vermont.

The closest big hospital was in Burlington, Vermont, Linda said.

“We’re talking almost 28 years ago. Things were a whole lot different,” she said. “They packed Brian up and sent him by ambulance to Vermont and left me in New York. They did testing, and at midnight I have to go to the nurse’s station to get a phone call when I hear that he needs surgery the next day.”

The most direct way to get to the hospital in Vermont was by ferry, Linda said, and her mother got special permission to stay with her at the hospital while Stan caught the ferry in order to sign the papers for Brian to have a colostomy. Brian had Hirschprungs disease, which affects the large intestine, and his parents were told to take him home and to bring him back seven months later for corrective surgery.

“With an infant, anything that could go wrong did go wrong,” Linda said. “What should have been a one-week stay at the Burlington Ronald McDonald House ended up being a one-month stay. We were just a young military family, and if it had not been for the Ronald McDonald House, we would have been the people staying in our cars.”

Linda and Stan were so touched by the generosity and provisions of the Ronald McDonald House that they continued to support the house after Brian got well.

“We fell in love with the house,” Stan said. “They treated us so well. We stayed in contact with the house, and we actually volunteered with the house for five years. We were weekend volunteer staff, and we brought the kids along.”

In 1992, the family was transferred to England, and they thought their volunteer efforts with the Ronald McDonald House were over. Four years later, Stan was stationed at the Little Rock Air Force Base, and although the couple continued to think about volunteering with the house, their time was filled with raising two young boys.

A decade later, a tragic event in their lives propelled the couple to return to the Ronald McDonald House as volunteers.

Brian died of a drug overdose in 2006, and after a mourning period, Linda and Stan felt they had to get out and do something.

“We did nothing for a year, and then we just looked at each other and said, ‘This isn’t what we’re here for,’” Linda said. “We just started looking for a cause. We ended up at the Little Rock Ronald McDonald House on their Supper Club.”

According to the Ronald McDonald House Charities Arkansas website, the supper club offers volunteers an opportunity to use their time and resources to provide a warm meal for families at Ronald McDonald House after they have spent a long day at the hospital. This service help the families focus on what is really important — their children, the website states.

Two years later, the couple started walking and running. During the St. Jude Half Marathon in 2011, they started talking about organizing a race in Brian’s honor to support the Ronald McDonald House.

“As a dutiful husband, [I] was agreeing with her the whole time,” Stan said. “At the end of the race, I stopped and thought, ‘What did I just agree to?’”

Out of that discussion, Linda and Stan started the Brian Valley Memorial 5K+1. Initially, they looked at hosting the race in Little Rock, but with the logistics, it would have been too expensive. The couple met with Jacksonville Mayor Gary Fletcher, who found a course and helped them get the race off the ground. The course runs along a road on Little Rock Air Force Base property, and base officials have been accommodating and helpful, Stan and Linda said.

Stan said Brian was a unique child, and they wanted an alternative to having just another 5K. That is why the race is four miles instead of the traditional three miles.

“Brian was a little different,” Stan said, “so we wanted to do something a little different. But also, we want everyone to go the extra mile for the Ronald McDonald House.”

Linda said there are 27 5K races throughout the state on the same day as the Brian Valley Memorial 5K+1. They wanted a different twist to entice racers, and that literal extra mile helps.

The USA Track and Field-certified race will start at the Jacksonville-Little Rock Air Force Base University Center.

Registration for the race costs $25 for adults and $15 for children ages 5-17. A race T-shirt is included with registration, and additional shirts cost $10 each.

The race will start at 8 a.m. April 25. Packets may be picked up at the Jacksonville-Little Rock Air Force Base University Center from 3-6 p.m. April 23, from noon to 3 p.m. April 24 and from 6:45-7:45 a.m. on race day.

For more information on the Brian Valley Memorial 5K+1, visit www.bvmemorial.com.

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