Haskell Anderson remembers the first time he tried to participate in Great Strides, the annual fundraising walk for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation.
"I couldn't find the walk," said Anderson, whose son, Reece, has the disease. "It wasn't an event."
It is now, thanks in large part to his efforts. Last year, his promotion of the walk helped draw about 770 people, raising more than $100,000 for the foundation's Arkansas chapter. The goal for 2014's walk, to be held Saturday at the Little Rock Zoo: $122,000.
Hannah Herriman, development director for the foundation in Arkansas, said Anderson has been "100 percent committed" to the event for more than a decade.
"He wanted it to be a celebration, and that's what it's become," she said.
Music, food, games and a stroll along the zoo's perimeter, from the elephants to the gorillas, are part of the fun.
Anderson became involved in the foundation after Reece, who's almost 13, was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at 18 months. CF, as the disease is often called, is a genetic disorder that causes mucus to build up in the lungs and other areas of the body, leading to breathing difficulties and other symptoms.
Treatment can improve the quality of life of people with CF, but the disease generally worsens as people with it enter adulthood. Their average life span is 37 years.
Anderson recalls leaving Arkansas Children's Hospital not long after his son's diagnosis and seeing a teen with CF outside, smoking.
"The worst thing he can do to himself," Anderson said. "I thought 'I don't want my son to lose hope like he did.'"
But Great Strides — the local CF foundation chapter’s chief fundraiser — didn’t offer much hope at the time. The first year Anderson went, he eventually found about 30 people milling about the River Market.
“It was the most depressing thing I ever participated in. I didn’t want my son coming to see that nobody cared.”
It may be that few people knew much about CF. Although it’s the most common inherited deadly disease among Caucasians in this country, it’s also rare. About 300 Arkansans have been diagnosed with it.
Anderson joined the local CF foundation board in 2003 and chaired Great Strides for the first time the next year. He began talking about CF to civic groups, churches and anyone who’d listen, rounding up corporate sponsors and individual participants.
Anderson said he’d been active in civic clubs “and that kind of taught me to go and look and see how I can serve” his son, because “there’s nothing I can do to take it away from him, all I can do is help fight this thing. It came easy for me.”
Reece takes 15 pills and undergoes chest therapy two to four times a day to combat CF symptoms. Although Reece has been hospitalized several times, Anderson said it doesn’t dominate his life. “He doesn’t think about CF. It’s just what he has.”
Anderson and his wife, Angela, have two daughters, 19-year-old Morgan and 15-year-old Carley, who do not have the disease.
CF is caused by a defective gene that can have several types of mutations. One message that Anderson delivers in his talks is that much progress has been made in the research and treatment of CF, and even more is expected.
Herriman said a drug called Kalydeco, introduced two years ago, has proved extremely effective in alleviating the symptoms of about 4 percent of the population with CF. Another drug is in the final stages of evaluation for its effectiveness on CF patients who carry the most common mutation. Reece is among the 50 percent of carriers with that mutation, she said.
“We’re really hopeful.”
Although the foundation spends some money on care and social services, most of what is raised goes for research in partnership with pharmaceutical companies. Because of the relatively small number of people with CF — about 30,000 in the United States — those companies might otherwise be reluctant to devote resources to it. The national foundation expects to invest $124 million in research this year, up from $1 million in 1980, she said.
Great Strides is one of five foundation events in Arkansas that raises at least $100,000 annually, Herriman said. Last year, it netted $101,000 on total proceeds of $108,000. This year, the goal is to net $115,000.
“That’s one thing we’re proud of, how efficient these events are,” Herriman said.
And much of that is due to Anderson, she said.
“He has been pretty fearless in recruiting people from all aspects of his life,” from fellow Kiwanis and church members to Arvest Bank, where he has worked for 24 years, counting its previous incarnation, Superior Bank. He’s a senior vice president, overseeing branches in North Little Rock, Cabot, Jacksonville, Conway, Lonoke, Sherwood and Morrilton.
“Everybody loves Haskell,” Herriman said. “Even his co-workers want to get behind him and support him.”
On Fridays leading up to Great Strides, Arvest employees earn the right to dress casually — jeans and T-shirts promoting Great Strides — by raising money for the event. “They get competitive with each other and have a lot of fun,” Anderson said.
Fun has always been Anderson’s goal for the event, which he said has been threatened but never hampered by the season’s often wild weather.
“It doesn’t rain on walk day.”
Great Strides
WHAT: A one-mile walk, breakfast, games and music
WHERE: Little Rock Zoo
WHEN: 8-10 a.m. Saturday, with registration beginning at 7
COST: There is no entry fee but donations to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation are accepted
High Profile on 05/11/2014