OSU turns out 11 relay teams to 'run for Emily' at Oklahoma City Memorial marathon
Tuesday, April 26, 2011
Eleven teams of Oklahoma State University relay runners at the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon on May 1 will be running for the promise of a better future for little Emily Grace Stiegler, sole survivor of a tragic car crash on Christmas Eve.
“Out of the heartbreaking tragedy rose the miracle of little Emily’s survival,” said Dave Porter, head of OSU’s Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, whose faculty and staff have organized and largely make up the 11 relay teams. “We hope people will consider making a donation to the Emily Grace Stiegler Fund. Any amount is truly appreciated and tax-deductible.”
Now a year old, Emily faces the challenges of life without the love and support of her parents, OSU alumni Chris and Jenny Goodpasture Stiegler, who died in the car crash.
Each had earned their bachelor’s and master’s degrees at OSU. Chris, 35, grew up as practically a member of the university’s Department of Plant and Soil Sciences, being the son of longtime faculty member and department head Jim Stiegler. Chris had been an assistant professor at Texas A&M for less than a year at the time of the crash. Jenny, 32, was manager at Bath & Body Works at Post Oak Mall in College Station, Texas.
The crash took the lives of not only Chris and Jenny Stiegler but also the couple whose vehicle reportedly hydroplaned into the Stiegler’s path across Texas Highway 14 between College Station and Dallas. The accident left Emily with two broken femurs and a skull fracture.
“She was released from the hospital on Dec. 29 but had to remain in a bilateral spica body cast for many weeks,” said her grandfather Jim Stiegler. “She is truly our little angel and the largest blessing of all. Emily will be a living reminder and tribute to both her parents. There are not enough words to adequately thank all the people in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma for their prayers, love, concern and support.”
The 11 relay teams sport names evoking their desire to provide for Emily combined with the composition of their specific group: Emily’s Angels, Emily’s Turtles, tEaMILY, Cowboys for Emily, Emily’s Heroes, Emily’s Fortis, Emily’s Eagles, Emily’s Army, Emily’s Entourage, Empower Emily and Emily’s Familia.
Amber Eytcheson, a graduate student with OSU’s Division of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources and member of tEaMILY, said she was drawn to run in the marathon, in part, because of her own intimate knowledge of what faces Emily.
“I lost my brother two years ago in an accident,” she said. “I remember people telling me and my family after my brother’s funeral, ‘if there is anything at all that we can do, let us know.’ As a department, we did not have to ask the Stieglers what we could do to help. We knew just what to do.”
While training for the marathon, Eytcheson said she was thinking of her brother – who was also a runner – as well as Emily, her parents and the entire Stiegler family every time she ran.
“When the Brazilian students heard what we were doing, they gathered up their friends and made a team,” she said. “They thought that it was the least they could do to help out the Stiegler family. Our hearts go out to her and the family, and our way of helping was to raise funds for little Emily, to make sure that she will be taken care of financially.”
Porter said there is still time to sponsor an amount-per-mile-run by contacting the department at 405-744-6425.
“If you don’t wish to sponsor one of our teams through the running of the 26.2 mile-long marathon then please just consider making a donation,” he said.
To make a donation for Emily, send a check or money order to the Emily Grace Stiegler Fund c/o Citizens State Bank, 4611 W. 6th St., Stillwater, OK 74074.
Porter said the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon is a race that is not about running but about celebrating life. Indeed, 168 banners line the marathon course, one for each victim of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995.
“Those banners serve to remind us as we run that we have been given the gift of life and that it is too precious to waste,” he said. “This is what the marathon is about: realizing the preciousness of time, valuing one another, taking life as it comes and making something magical from it.”