FAYETTEVILLE — By now, it’s not just friends and family who are supporting the Jackson L. Graves Foundation.
That was certainly the case in 2005, when the foundation held its first Red, White and Baby Blue fundraiser. By 2012, though, a different crowd turns up for Red, White and Baby Blue.
Yes, there are still some attendees who have a longtime connection to James and Angie Graves of Fayetteville, who started the foundation in honor of their late infant son. Thereare also people who don’t know the Graveses all that well, but are supportive of the foundation’s mission and are looking for a fun night out in downtown Fayetteville.
“It’s years down the road now, and I think the reason it’s still successful is because it’s a fun event and it’s a cause people are interested in, and less [that] it’s our group of close friends that are trying to be supportive of us,” James Graves says. “To us, it’s still very personal, but you want to provide an event that’s a good time.”
Jackson Graves was born prematurely on Oct.12, 2004, with a birth defect known as omphalocele, in which the abdominal organs grow in a sac protruding from the base of the umbilical cord. He died on Feb. 19, 2005, at Arkansas Children’s Hospital in Little Rock.
By that time, James and Angie Graves had already decided that, regardless of the outcome, they wanted to do something to benefit the families who had to spend lengthy stretches of time at Children’s Hospital. When Jackson passed away, more than $10,000 in memorials were donated, which provided the seed money to start the Jackson L. GravesFoundation.
“When you’re there that long, you start to think, ‘Well, he doesn’t have toys to play with. There’s beeps and monitors and other babies that keep him awake, and he’s going to be here for months. We don’t have anywhere to put his clothes, he needs things to watch, a mobile,’” James says.
Over the course of its history, the foundation has donated more than $300,000 for neonatal and pediatric projects. Many of the donations have been made to Children’s Hospital - everything from precision scales that measure babies to the one-tenth of an ounce to resources like books and computers to a quieter communications system for medical staff.
In recent years, the foundation has made donations outside of central Arkansas. It provided educational resources at the Children’s Hospital at Oklahoma University Medical Center in Oklahoma City, a noise-monitoring system at Willow Creek Women’s Hospital in Johnson, andKangaroo Chairs at several locations, including Washington Regional Medical Center in Fayetteville.
There’s not a specific goal for the future of the foundation, James Graves says, other than to continue providing assistance where it is needed. It might stay regional, or might one day expand to national scope.
“We didn’t and don’t have a plan for where it might go; we’ve just gone where it’s led us, ” James Graves explains. “Whenever a hospital or parents bring ideas to us, if we can do it, we’ll do it, and if we don’t have the resources right now, we’ll take it to an event like Red, White and Baby Blue and say, ‘We’ve had a request for this, let’s try to do this tonight.’”
The eighth annual Red, White and Baby Blue fundraiser is 7-10 p.m. Friday at the Garden Room in downtown Fayetteville. Tickets are$30 in advance, $40 at the door. Fundraisers in recent years have raised more than $20,000.
Befitting its location on Dickson Street, Red, White and Baby Blue is a fun, casual event, with food, drinks, a silent auction and live music by Leah and the Mojo Doctors. The featured speaker will be Dr. Amir Lahav, director of the neonatal research lab at Harvard Medical School.
“It’s turned into a good time, where groups can come out and have a fun night,” James Graves says. “And since the event ends at 10 o’clock, and it’s on Dickson Street, youcan continue your night [out] if you want to.” For more information about the Red, White and Baby Blue fundraiser, call (479) 466-8339 or visit
jacksongraves.org
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Northwest Profile, Pages 33 on 06/24/2012