'Skip the Mum and Help Someone'

THE WOODLANDS, Texas -- This football season everyone’s talking about foregoing the purchase of a mum for homecoming, and donating to an essential cause instead. Many students at The Woodlands High School will be displaying their school spirit for a cause instead of wearing a mum at the homecoming game September 27. A “W” spirit T-shirt will acknowledge those who generously donated to Children’s Organ Transplant Association (COTA) to be earmarked for Halle Ludwig, the 11-year-old sister of Layne Ludwig, who plays for The Woodlands Highlanders JV Red football team.

Halle is desperately in need of another life-saving kidney transplant. Her disease is fatal. Halle was born with autosomal recessive polycystic kidney disease (ARPKD) which occurs in utero, typically as a result of both parents being genetic carriers. Approximately 30% of affected infants die in the neonatal period, hours or days after birth. To put it simply, infants with ARPKD show enlarged, cyst-filled kidneys. The cysts impair the kidneys’ ability to filter waste from the body. The disease also impedes the baby’s ability to take in amniotic fluid to develop the lungs, therefore, death is the result of respiratory insufficiency or superimposed pulmonary infections.

Halle is the second of Christine’s children to be afflicted with this fatal disease. Christine lost a son, Noah, to ARPKD; he died two days after birth. Halle has defied the odds, but her failing health is requiring a sense of urgency. The disease doesn’t just attack the kidneys, it also causes liver failure. Halle will eventually require a liver transplant as well.

“Halle is a walking miracle,” said Christine Clinkenbeard, Halle’s mother. “Halle goes to school, she plays, and with the exception of being pale, you would think she’s fine, but the kidney I donated to her is failing.”

To offset the extraordinary costs, fundraising will be essential. The “Skip the Mum and Help Someone!” was suggested by the lead volunteer’s teenage daughter.

“My daughter, Mary, said she thought the students would support the idea,” said Kelli McKelvey. “I’ve already been getting text messages for T-shirt sizes.”

To support Halle’s cause requires just a few clicks. Go to the COTA website for Halle at COTA for HalleL . The website is user-friendly and because COTA is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, the donations are income tax deductible. The website will even generate a tax deductible receipt.

COTA has become the premier organization providing fundraising assistance to families facing a life-saving transplant by acting as the fund manager. COTA does not take a percentage of funds raised, nor does it charge for its services. For more than 25 years, families throughout the nation representing every ethnic, economic, religious and social background, have benefited by working with COTA. It has helped more than 2,000 children and adults, and has raised more than $70 million. Last year alone, more than $4.8 million was raised.

“We’re trying to raise $10,000 with this initial fundraser,” said McKelvey, “but our overall goal is $100,000.”

Anyone who donates $25 or more, and wants a “W” spirit T-shirt, should email or call Kelli McKelvey. The spirit T-shirt will be the first of many fundraising projects to benefit Halle, so stay tuned, there are more to come.

In the meantime, the search is on for a kidney donor. The disease won’t attack the new organs. According to Halle’s mother, the changes that children’s bodies go through…the growth spurts, physical changes, etc., stresses the organs. Children with this disease go through more transplants than adults would. The drugs administered to keep the body from rejecting the organ also take their toll.

“Halle wants to get past this so that she can grow up to be a children’s doctor,” said Clinkenbeard. “God did not let me keep Halle this long just to take her from me. She will go on to do great things.”