The Maggie Springs Run is taking place on Saturday

Tanya Baer, [email protected]

Sweetwater County- This year the 6th annual Maggie Springs Side by Side Run will be held on Saturday, July 16 at 9:00 a.m. Those who want to attend will have to drive 25 1/2 miles south on Highway 191 and then turn left. The fun run is located at Maggie Springs.

Every year two recipients are chosen for the Maggie Springs Run Fundraiser. This year the two chosen recipients are Lean Allen and Colt Majko. This year will be a little different than the previous years. “We will be having a silent auction along with our raffle baskets, big raffle prizes, and a 50/50 raffle out at the run on July 16. We added the silent auction because we received, through donations, some beautiful handmade items. We can’t wait to show them off,” stated the Maggie Springs Run Facebook page.

Leah Allen was riding an electric scooter when she ended up getting into a terrible accident on September 16, 2021. Leah had to be life-flighted to the University of Utah because she sustained major head trauma. The doctors found out that she had bleeding in and around her brain and she ended up needing brain surgery. After the surgery, Leah needed to stay in the hospital until mid-December. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the last of her hospital visits, as Leah caught Covid during the Second week of January. Doctors then found fluid in and around her brain. Leah had to go back to the University of Utah and had to have another surgery to have a shunt put in her brain. She ended up staying at the hospital until the beginning of February and then could finally go home. Since then, Leah has had a few seizures and doctors are working with her to see what can be done. She is working hard with rehab and trying to get back to normal day-to-day life.

Colt Majko was born on September 25, 2021. Unfortunately, Colt suffered severe brain trauma during labor and delivery. He was diagnosed with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE). This means that he lacked proper oxygen and blood flow to his brain and because of this roughly 80% of his brain was damaged. Recently, Colt was diagnosed with Cerebral Palsy. Colt has started to have seizures again, which happen to be painful. Colt needs a lot of special care and equipment and also has in-home physical therapy to help with his eyes and the right side of his body.

The fundraiser started 6 years ago due to a young mother of two who had been diagnosed with cancer. Dwayne Haeck really wanted to find a way to help and that is when the fundraising began. Haeck remembers a time when his own father hurt his back and there was nobody that could help and this is something that inspires him to keep doing these fundraisers.

The silent auction and raffles will be located at the beginning of the run on Saturday. For the silent auction, participants will be given a bidding number and can then bid on the items they want a chance to win. The raffle tickets will cost $1 each and participants will place their tickets in the buckets in front of the items they want. This year instead of playing cards, dice will be used. The person with the highest number at the end of the day will win 15 percent of whatever is made and the person with the lowest number will win 10 percent. The rest of the money will go two this year’s recipients.