Team Josiah will be out in full force at the Run With All Your Heart 5K on Saturday.
Team Josiah will be out in full force at the Run With All Your Heart 5K on Saturday.
The race — which starts and ends at CrossFit Pohaku on Alapa St. in the Old Industrial Area — will benefit the Rady Children’s Hospital in San Diego. Registration begins at 7 a.m., and the 5K run/walk starts at 8 a.m.
While Rady Children’s Hospital is far from the Big Island, the care facility became a second home for 1-year-old Big Island resident Josiah Sanarez, who Saturday’s race will be in honor of.
“I wanted to do something because the care we got at this hospital was so great,” Josiah’s mother Tonia Sanarez said. “Everybody is welcome to come. It’s by donation, but if you can’t give anything, just the support shown by being there is enough.”
Josiah was born with a heart condition that has required three open-heart surgeries at the San Diego children’s facility. He will have to return to Rady Children’s every few months, but was approved to fly back home to the Big Island in March.
“The doctors told me that his heart is pumping so hard it’s like he’s running a marathon,” Tonia Sanarez said. “That’s how he feels, so that’s where the thought to have this event came from.”
Tonia said Josiah was not the only Hawaii resident in the mainland hospital and she can remember a point where there were at least a dozen Hawaii families there, making the cause much closer to home than the 2,500-plus miles from San Diego to Hawaii may seem.
“I don’t think many people realize how many families from Hawaii go to this hospital,” she said. “It’s not just for my son, but for so many other Hawaii families too.”
Donations can be made at the event, or by going to give.rchsd.org/goto/teamjosiah. For more information, call Tonia at 707-803-9186.