The fifth annual Celebrate Sela 5K is coming up Saturday in Columbia and continues to raise awareness about a childhood disease in memory of a Marion County girl.
The race is held in honor of Sela Marie Anderson, the daughter of David and Laura Anderson of Foxworth, who fought CDH (congenital diaphragmatic hernia) for 23 days following her birth in 2014.
The 5K begins at 8 a.m. at Friendship Park. There will also be a fun run for children 3 to 14 and a balloon release.
Registra-tion is $25 for the 5K and $15 for the Fun Run. Proceeds from the race this year will be split between the Blair E. Batson Children’s Hospital in Jackson, where Sela was treated, and the family of Mackynlee Bedwell, a Columbia Academy student awaiting a heart transplant.
Laura Anderson said she works with Mackynlee’s mother, Susan, at West Marion High School.
“It wasn’t a hard decision (to support the Bedwell family). It was something I felt led to do,” she said.
The race usually draws about 150 participants. It raised more than $10,000 last year and has brought in more than $31,000 over its four-year existence.
Volunteers along the route staff water stations at the halfway point and the end. Anderson said her family and church, Grace Chapel in Sandy Hook, help as do West Marion students from the National Honor Society and Beta Club.
Anderson said they decided as a family to hold the event every year to bring attention to the birth defect that many people are not familiar with. CDH occurs when the diaphragm fails to form, or close totally, and the opening allows abdominal organs into the chest cavity and inhibits lung development, according to information provided by the Anderson family. It affects about one in every 2,500 births and has about a 50 percent survival rate.
For more information about participating in the race, email celebratesela@gmail.com, call (601) 441-8573 or visit Facebook.com/celebratesela. Registration can also be done online by going to runsignup.com and searching “Celebrate Sela.”
Registration can also be done starting at 7 a.m. Saturday.
“You don’t have to be a runner or super athletic. You can walk it,” Anderson said. “In fact my mom pushes my baby in a stroller.”
Pictured Above: Runners in the 2018 Celebrate Sela 5K gather at the starting line. | Photo Submitted
