In 2009, 15-year-old Mary Drake and her boyfriend at the time, Blaine, were in a head-on automobile collision, leaving Drake with a traumatic brain injury, multiple fractures and very little control of her body. Blaine was spared from any major injuries, but Drake spent eight months in the hospital.
Following Mary’s hospital stay, friends and family of the Drakes, along with the booster club at Mount St. Mary’s Academy in Little Rock, organized a celebrity basketball game. More than 3,000 people came to the game to support the Drake Family, and from that initial event, the Miracles Fore Mary Golf Tournament was created.
The annual tournament began 11 years ago, in 2010, when friends of Jim Drake, Mary’s father, and his family decided to put on the tournament.
“When she came home, we had a number of people who wanted to help,” Jim Drake said. “They put this golf tournament on as a way to raise money for any unplanned costs, and after a couple of years, we started the Miracles for Mary Foundation.
“We give all the proceeds to families who are coping with traumatic brain injury.”
The annual Miracles Fore Mary Golf Tournament will take place from 7:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Aug. 22
at the Country Club of Arkansas in Maumelle. The cost is $100 per person to play, and 28 four-person teams are signed up so far, “which we are very encouraged about,” Drake said. “Last year, we had as many as 52 teams, so to have 28 right now in the midst of this pandemic is very encouraging.
“We always have some late
sign-ups, too.”
Mary, now 26, is a quadriplegic and lives at home with the constant care of Drake and his wife, Patti Drake. Mary is unable to talk and is fed through a feeding tube.
Jim Drake said the selfless dedication and love of Mary’s occupational therapist, Gala Norwood, has been a blessing, and she “has certainly played a role in getting Mary to where she is today.”
“While Mary still deals with limitations, we have seen her become more and more alert over the years,” Drake said. “Her eyes are more clear, and her response time is quicker. She communicates to us through sounds and facial expressions.”
Drake said that for more than 10 years, Mary has been healthy, which he attributes to his wife’s care. However, in the past six months, Mary has been hospitalized twice after having seizures.
“We try to keep her active daily, which may include stretching her muscles, spending time in the standing frame or just getting out and about,” Drake said. “We have had to limit our field trips, however, due to COVID-19.”
In the past, the tournament had a shotgun start with about 200 golfers all starting at the same time. As a result of COVID-19, Drake said, it would be impossible to get groups like that together, so each group will have different tee times, and there will be a safe distance between them.
He said there will also be an online golf update with videos, interviews and other highlights, and it will be kind of like watching a golf tournament on TV. The videos will then be posted on miraclesformary.com. Registration for the tournament can also be found at the website.
Gene Brandao has played in the golf tournament since its inception. He and Drake were a part of the same men’s group at Christ the King Catholic Church in Little Rock that met weekly.
“[His family] taught us how to go through something unimaginable in the way of great grace and faith,” Brandao said. “And the tournament took it another step by turning into a foundation that would help others who were suffering the same thing they had gone through — it was a completely different thing at that point.
“The golf tournament became something that we saw as an annual way to honor and help people who have had traumatic brain injuries. It became a cause of its own to help an entirely different group of people.”
Even though the format of the tournament has changed, Brandao said, he will still be on a team with the same guys that he has always played with at the tournament.
“We aren’t a threat to win it or anything,” he said, joking.
Last year, thanks in large part to the charity auction, the golf tournament raised more than $95,000. Drake said he hopes to raise at least $50,000 for the foundation this year. There will not be an auction this time because Drake said it would be impossible to gather that many people in that tight a space.
Katie Escovedo’s youngest daughter played on a basketball team with Mary before the accident. Escovedo said she has been involved with the golf tournament since the beginning and eventually took over the charity’s auction on the Friday before the tournament. Escovedo said that even though the auction will not take place this year, she will still help in some capacity.
“I think, initially, that so many people wanted to be a part of it was due to the fact that they could visualize something happening to their child and what it would be like if it was their own child,” Escovedo said. “I think because we have been consistent, and we make the event fun and truly want to help people, they just continue to be a part of it.
“We always have an amazing turnout.”
Escovedo said one reason the tournament always has such a good turnout is because of the Drakes and their willingness to help people.
“They always talk about what a blessing Mary is, and I don’t know many people who would say that and mean it,” Escovedo said. “They feel very blessed, and it just seeps out of them and infects everybody.”
Usually, charity items include donated items from area businesses, and with the shutdown and the struggles of most small businesses during the pandemic, Drake said, he didn’t feel like it was a good idea to ask for items this year.
“We help families in three different ways,” Drake said. “First, we help emotionally because we have been through this. Our daughter came home from the hospital about 10 years ago, and she is living with us with total care — so we can empathize with other families.
“We have a deep belief; we would not be able to cope with this ourselves and without God in our life. We feel like our experience might be beneficial to others.”
Drake said the money is also used to help others financially by providing medical equipment, such as handicap-accessible vans. He said the foundation helped one church rebuild a house and made it handicap accessible, including lifts for the patient and therapy tables.
“Traumatic brain injuries are something that is not on everybody’s radar,” Brandao said. “The golf tournament gave us the opportunity to learn about it and be a part of it.
“It started off as a difficult thing for [the Drakes], and Jim and his family turned it into a way to do good for someone else. That’s why I think it is such a special event.”
Staff writer Sam Pierce can be reached at (501) 244-4314 or spierce@arkansasonline.com.