By Seth Keichline, Team IronJax
We participate in CHOC Walk in the Park in honor of our son, Jaxson, who died in 2012 at 4-years-old following a drowning accident at a neighbor’s pool party. Jax was transferred to CHOC Hospital from another hospital, and the CHOC staff spent the next three hours doing everything they could to save our boy. The grace, compassion and solace that the CHOC staff showed us left an overwhelming mark on my wife and I. We lost our boy, but it was as if they lost him with us.
We walk in Jax’s memory. It’s a way to honor his life and the way he touched so many people in his short time with us, all the while helping to raise money for the hospital. We first started walking in 2012, just a few months after Jax passed away. A friend of mine worked at Disneyland and had worked on the event before, and mentioned it to me. I don’t think we signed up until about six weeks before the event, and we just figured our family and maybe a handful of friends would join us. We ended up with over 75 team members and raised more than $10,000.
I’ll always remember that first year. There were so many emotions – we were in the thick of grieving, the rush of scrambling to get a team together in such a short time – but we felt a sense of pride on how we honored our sweet boy.
We are most inspired by the compassion and grace that the CHOC staff showed to our family. That is what we will always remember.
