Racing for Emma

A Highland County distance runner who has competed in some of the nation’s most challenging marathons and 18,000 other runners will be racing with a goal other than a trophy or a record time in mind this weekend.

Greenfield resident Carol Grate is joining forces with a remarkable 8-year-old from Dublin, Ohio and her “dream team” to raise funds for the Columbus Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

Carol Grate of Greenfield will be competing in the half marathon event at the Columbus Marathon, which raises funds for the Nationwide Children’s Hospital, as a member of the Emma’s Greatest Dream Team.

The team is named for Emma Dickman, a Dublin City Schools third-grader who has devoted her young life to achieving her “greatest dream” … learning to walk.

Emma was diagnosed with quadriplegic cerebral palsy just before her first birthday but has been defying the odds since birth, developing advanced verbal skills at an early age and working hard to learn to walk by undergoing major surgery and spending hours at physical therapy each week.

The marathon, which is sold out, will be held Sunday, Oct. 19.

According to the Columbus Marathon website, 18,000 runners will compete this year for the 35th annual event.

Grate has competed in the Boston Marathon, running in 2001 and 2006 and qualifying for the 2013 marathon, the year of the infamous Boston Marathon bombings. “I had qualified out of the Air Force Marathon that year,” Grate said. “I had gotten sick, and that’s why I hadn’t been able to run in Boston [in 2013].”

Grate competed in the Air Force Marathon 5K again in 2014, finishing second in the female division and 27th overall out of 1,596 entries. She also recently finished as the 22nd female and 185th overall out of the nearly 11,000 racers in the Ohio State 4-Miler Sept. 21.

Grate said that when she was asked to race on Emma’s team, she quickly agreed to do the half marathon. “They always say if you can run 10 miles, you can run a half marathon, but I’ve never just ran 10 miles and hoped to do a half,” Grate said. “I think if you’re competitive, you try to push beyond that.”

Grate said that the cause is close to her heart, as she has had several relatives, including grandchildren, a niece and her sister, who were patients at Children’s Hospital.

“I have just been amazed by the results that they are able to do at Children’s,” Grate said. “They are such a blessing to parents. It’s amazing what they can do.”

Grate is friends with Emma’s aunt’s mother-in-law, Cindi Pearce of Greenfield, but she has never met Emma or her family. Members of Emma’s team include relatives, friends and her parents’ coworkers, along with her father, Stephen Dickman. Dickman said that Emma has supporters across the country, many of whom their family has never met.

“We’re very excited to meet Carol and to meet some of these people for the first time,” Dickman said.

Grate said she is looking forward to being introduced to Emma at the Columbus Marathon as well.

“Every picture you see, she’s working out so hard,” Grate said. “She’s just a sweetheart.

“The pictures of her are so inspiring. Sometimes when I’m so busy and getting a run in is hard, I think of her and how difficult it must be.”

“Difficult” may seem like an understatement for a child whose diagnosis meant the odds of her walking were slim, but the word “difficult” isn’t in the vocabulary of the girl who cheerfully tells the world, “I’m a lion, not a lamb.”

According to the Columbus Children’s Hospital, Emma “was born 13 weeks early, weighing only 2 lbs., 14 oz., and spent the first 72 days of her life in the NICU at Nationwide Children’s Hospital,” where Dickman said “she showed us who she was going to be.”

“She was pulling out wires and was like ‘get me out of here,’” Dickman joked. “She had that fight in her from the very beginning, and that’s just who she has become.”

Dickman said a lot of Emma’s progress has come from “her spirit.”

“If there’s something she wants to do, as parents, we’re doing everything we possibly can to keep her motivated and show her what her determination will do for not only herself, but other people,” Dickman said.

Emma has had plenty of support along the way from her parents and her little brother, Owen. Dickman and his wife, Amanda, both work in special education in the Dublin City Schools system.

“The year I started, I was working with a boy who had cerebral palsy,” Dickman said. “Looking at the kids we work with, we know it will be a lot of work, but it’s all going to be okay. We’re very fortunate.”

Owen started kindergarten this year and goes to the same elementary school as his big sister.

“Our son has been the best teammate for Emma,” Dickman said. “They work with each other and are the best of friends. Each of the kids has something very phenomenal to offer. Ever since he was 2, he’s been helping her. He guards her walker, and he’s there for her.”

Last year, the Dickmans decided to “pay it forward” by raising funds for the Children’s Hospital after Emma made rapid progress following surgery.

In June 2013, Emma underwent a selective dorsal rhizotomy (SDR) at the St. Louis, Mo. Children’s Hospital, which has a center specializing in cerebral palsy treatments. According to the St. Louis Children’s Hospital, an SDR “involves sectioning (cutting) of some of the sensory nerve fibers that come from the muscles and enter the spinal cord” which helps “reduce spasticity” in CP patients.

“Immediately after the surgery, we saw just a dramatic shift in her ability,” Dickman said.

Dickman said Emma “flew in her walker just a few short months after her surgery, has developed muscle tone she didn’t have before, is getting stronger and is doing well.” She has successfully mastered her walker and is now working on learning to walk with crutches. On Oct. 8, the Dickmans posted a video of Emma walking 1,500 feet on crutches at her physical therapy session.

“Her personality and just her overall outlook have not wavered through the whole process,” Dickman said. “Emma’s been smiling the whole way.”

Dickman credits the neonatologists and the physical medicine and rehabilitation departments at the Nationwide Children’s Hospital for their role in Emma’s progress.

“She started physical therapy very early on,” Dickman said. “We got services right off the bat.”

Dickman ran for Emma at last year’s Columbus Marathon, saying that she was “all the motivation I needed.”

“Emma has always been really giving, and we’re trying to teach our kids that,” Dickman said. “It’s all about the hospital and trying to make it a better place. Emma wants to give back and to help out, and I think that it’s very important that we do that.”

According to the Columbus Marathon website, the race has raised “more than $2 million since the partnership” between the marathon and the hospital began three years ago.

“Ever since Nationwide Hospital has partnered with the Columbus Marathon, we’ve seen dramatic changes in the hospital,” Dickman said. “If you go down there now, you have a whole different feeling compared to four or five years ago when they didn’t have the new part of the hospital.

“If kids are sick, we need to make the hospital a super comfortable place where we make it as easy as possible for them, because when it comes down to it, we’ve got it pretty easy.”

In addition to cheering her team members on, Emma will be a Patient Champion at Mile 26. There are 24 Patient Champions along the route, along with the Encore Mile, where Patient Champions from the previous two years all gather, and the Angel Mile “to honor, remember and celebrate the angels of Nationwide Children’s who have already finished their race,” according to the Marathon’s website.

The young ones who serve as Patient Champions choose a theme for their mile marker and greet runners as they pass. Emma selected a butterfly as the theme, and Amanda Dickman designed a logo with a green ribbon for cerebral palsy awareness as the butterfly’s body for the team members, who will be wearing pink shirts.

“The theme is butterflies, and when we get to that last mile, we’re gonna fly,” Dickman said.

Dickman said Emma can’t wait to give all the runners a high-five and walking through the finish line herself – and she wants to do it on crutches, if she’s feeling up to it, Dickman said.

The Dickmans are looking forward to the special weekend, which will include a birthday party for Owen, who will be turning 6, and spending time with friends, relatives and strangers running for Emma’s team and in honor of other young champions like herself.

“It’s just really neat how a kid like Emma, who’s so bubbly and so full of happiness, and other kids like that will inspire other people to run,” Dickman said. “She motivates me. I run for her, and I run for my son.

“It’s neat how the sport can motivate so many people.”

Emma’s team has raised over $6,000. To donate to the Emma’s Greatest Dream team, visit http://nationwidechildrens.kintera.org/faf/search/searchTeamPart.asp?ievent=1100840&team=5832235. For more information on Emma’s journey, visit the “Emma’s Greatest Dream” page on Facebook.