Butterfly Swamp 5K

This is our second annual Butterfly Swamp 5K and will be held on the beautiful grounds of the UALR campus. We started the race to honor our children Katherine and Ryan who we lost to complications of a connective tissue disorder called Loeys-Dietz which leads to early death from aortic aneurysms and dissections.. Katherine was 21 and Ryan was 18. They were amazing children and young adults and the world is a worse place without them.

At least 15,000 people a year die from Aortic Dissections, 33% of them will have gone to their doctors or ER and been misdiagnosed and sent home where tradgedy follows. This is what happened to Ryan. We want to do what we can to make a difference and help prevent other families from having to endure this agonizing loss , We plan to do this by promotind education and raising awareness about Loeys-Dietz Syndrome and Aortic Dissections among both the public and medical fields. All funds raised will go equally to  Arkansas Childrens Hospital for  research into conditions that effect the Aorta  and to the UALR scholarship that we set up in Katherine and Ryan's names so we can help other young people have a head start in life. No fees go to administrative costs as we fund all of those out of our pocket. Please come and join us for a fun day

Race Theme

Katherine loved Butterflies and Ryan loved the Florida Gators, hence the name of the race. They were both so strong and incredibly brave, so I thought that we would have butterflies and super hero's as the theme. So feel free to come dressed as your favourite superhero or wear your butterfly wings and fly round the course :) VV

Race Day Activities

We will have a raffle and silent auction for the bigger items, raffle tickets will be available for purchase. To help cover the cost of the butterflies and activities we will have activity bracelets for sale, this will also allow us to maximize the contribution that we will be able to make to Arkansas Childrens Hospital for medical research on conditions that effect the aorta. This research applies for not only our children but for us adults as well. There will be numerous activities for kids and aduts alike including lively fun music provided by DJ.