A North Carolina family of four is about a month away from completing 5K runs in all 50 states to raise money for Smile Train, an organization that pays for surgeries for people suffering from cleft lips and palates.
Jeremy and Kelly Hough and their daughters Caroline and Campbell of Pinehurst began their journey in Alaska. The Hough’s daughter Campbell was diagnosed with the condition when her mom was 30 weeks pregnant. Both daughters are high school cross country runners and Smile Train officials say the family has raised more than $100,000 for the organization over the years. Caroline, a sophomore and Campbell a senior, are taking virtual classes during the 50-state trek. During a stop in St. Louis, Missouri, en route to East Peoria, Illinois, Kelly Hough tells WFAE’s Gwendolyn Glenn that none of their days are the same.
Kelly Hough: Each day is completely different because we're waking up in a different town, a different space that we're going to be running at. It could be a park; it could be a trail. For our second 5K today — now, not every day has two 5Ks, but today was one of them. We were in the cutest little town, Rocheport, Missouri, there was a trail and a bridge and the Missouri River was on the one side and the cliffs were on the other. It was really beautiful. So every day is different.
Gwendolyn Glenn: How's your energy? You started out last month, correct?
Hough: We left North Carolina on Sept. 3 and started our trek driving the pickup truck with the RV towing behind us. We started Sept. 11, in Anchorage, Alaska. We flew to Alaska.
Gwendolyn Glenn: Well, Jeremy, tell me about Alaska and how many days were you there and did you do one race or more than one in Alaska?
Jeremy Hough: We got to Alaska on September 10th that afternoon and we left on the morning of Sept. 11 and we did our own 5K that morning. We just ran on the coastal trail right by the airport in Anchorage there and then we drove back to the hotel, then scooted out to catch our flight to fly back to Seattle.
Glenn: What made you want to do this? What's behind this story?
J. Hough: Our oldest daughter Campbell was born with a cleft lip and pallet in 2006. So, we've been working with Smile Train just about ever since she was born. She was born at Fort Bragg, now Fort Liberty. I'm a retiring military officer from the Air Force and we had really good care. They sent her up to UNC-Chapel Hill, right out the gate and she had two surgeries there before she was even a year old. And we just realized, we're really fortunate for the care that we had, but the one in 700 kids that are born around the world, they're not as fortunate as we are here in the United States to receive the kind of comprehensive cleft care that we got.
Glenn: Does she need additional surgeries? I was just wondering about the length of this process.
J. Hough: So Campbell had a third surgery, a bone graft, and that was when she was 8 years old. And now, she's been released from the cranial facial team a few years ago now. We're just kind of waiting on if she wants or needs a revision to her lip at this point.
Glenn: Kelly, what was it like to find out that your daughter had this condition and what were some of the things you had to do differently to accommodate her.
K. Hough: So, it was scary. We had never heard of it. We had a social worker helping us. We had lactation consultants, but it was hard.
Glenn: Now, I know for some children it’s hard for them to hear, hard for them to eat, and some may have breathing problems. Did Campbell have any of these issues?
K. Hough: The feeding was really challenging. She was so tiny and she was burning more calories trying to feed than she was gaining. She just needed some occupational therapy with her cheeks. They were weak. So that's where the feeding becomes challenging.
Glenn: Now, how are these races being arranged? Does Smile Train put them together for you?
J. Hough: You know most races happen on the weekend, so during the week, we're running our own 5K. We’re finding a trail to hike and run, a path that is somewhere along our route of travel as we go from city to city. So most of the 5K's that we do are not organized races per se. We've looked ahead of time and I've done some planning and will say, “Hey, we're going to go do a 5K here. Anybody in the area come out and join us please. And then on the weekends, we look for an organized 5K around where we're spending the night.
Glenn: And sometimes, I imagine it's just the family. The four of you running and your dogs.
J. Hough: Absolutely. And that has been the most of them so far.
Glenn: Is Campbell able to speak?
J. Hough: Yes, she is.
Campbell Hough: I’m back here. Hi.
Glenn: Hi Campbell. What did you think when your parents told you that you guys were going to do this? Or was this your idea?
C. Hough: It was actually me and my dad's idea, so it was me telling my parents, do you guys want to buy a trailer and drive us around to 50 stays in 50 days.
Glenn: Well, tell me this. You went to the country of Colombia and visited a hospital and saw children there. Tell me about your impression of what you saw when you went to Colombia.
C. Hough: It just kind of put a picture to like what we've been fundraising for. You know, I have never really seen kids older than a year with a cleft.
Glenn: So you saw some who were actually your age?
C. Hough: Yes.
Glenn: Do you remember any of what you went through for the surgeries? I know, of course not when you were one year old, but do you remember any of the other surgeries?
C. Hough: When I had the bone graft surgery when I was 8, I do remember that. I needed it because my gum line was missing bone and they needed bone in there so my teeth could continue, like moving in. But I would say it was mostly a good experience for me because I knew that it was to help me and I got to be on a liquid-based diet for 10 days. So, I got to have a lot of ice cream and smoothies and things. Yeah, it wasn't too bad.
Glenn: What's been your best experience since you've been doing these runs with your family?
C. Hough: Probably when we were in South Dakota and we went to a park and we had done an interview a couple of days before and then it was, like, released in an article telling people where we were going to be. And this older couple came to our run and they told us their story. They have a son who was born with a cleft palate
and one of their family members was our friend that we, like, lived in the same town with a couple years back, so that was cool and they just showed, like, so much support for us. It was, like, worth all this.
Glenn: Well, Jeremy and Kelly, anything else you guys would like to add because I'm sure it's brought your family closer together and not just in terms of the space.
J. Hough: It has been definitely an experiment for us and a lesson in just emotional intelligence and how to, like, be human with each other in close quarters. And the amount of learning that really all of us are getting right now, traveling around the country and seeing some incredible places as well as meeting incredible people far outweighs, I think what they would get in school this semester. You know, we're reaching people.
Jeremy, Kelly, Campbell and Caroline Hough, along with their two dogs are in Naples, Maine Thursday and will be in Bedford, Massachusetts on Friday. They will end their 50-state, 5K runs for Smile Train, a cleft palate-focused global organization, on Nov. 4 in Maui, Hawaii.