Ginny and Joel O’Harrow will host their fourth annual corn roast for Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin at their rural Oconto Falls home Sunday. The event will raise money for a nutritional study and a genetics study relating to children with congenital heart disease.
Ginny O’Harrow said the event is important “so another family doesn’t have to go through this.”
Her son, Gannon, was born with a heart defect and, at 14 months, underwent a successful heart transplant surgery in 2011 at Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.
“He’s doing absolutely fantastic,” Ginny O’Harrow said. “We still go to Children’s every two months for check-ups.”
Casi and Chris Tarmann, of Pound, attended last year’s corn roast just weeks after bringing home their son, Canon, from Children’s Hospital. The newborn was recovering from surgery to repair a heart defect.
“It was very, very hard. My husband broke down and cried,” Casi Tarmann said, describing last year’s event.
No tears are expected at this year’s fundraiser; their son is thriving.
“He’s walking. He’s talking. He’s doing everything a little boy should do,” Tarmann said.
Canon was 9 days old when he underwent surgery at Children’s Hospital on June 4, 2013, and he returns every six months for check-ups.
He was born May 26, 2013, and was ready to be discharged from St. Vincent Hospital in Green Bay when his mother developed complications, and they remained at the hospital a few days. An alert nurse observed Canon breathing too quickly, which led to a series of tests that detected a heart defect.
“If we would’ve taken him home, he would’ve died,” Tarmann said. “We were lucky enough to have that nurse check him out one more time.”
The surgery to repair his heart was a success, but complications required him to remain at Children’s Hospital until July 4, 2013.
“Children’s Hospital is wonderful,” Tarmann said.
O’Harrow said there are eight families in the area who have a child 8 or younger born with a serious heart condition. These families and other volunteers have formed Little Hearts for Life Inc., a nonprofit organization that raises money for research.
“It’s incredibly rewarding,” she said. “It’s not just about Joel and me and the kids anymore. We formed such a great group of people on the committee.”
Prizes this year include preseason Packers tickets, autographed Packers merchandise and $250 in botox treatments. The five top raffle prizes are a quarter of beef and freezer donated by A & J Livestock, a television, rifle, grill and a mini-iPad. Raffle tickets are $5 for one ticket and $20 for five tickets.
O’Harrow said the event gets bigger each year.
“We’ve outgrown our tent. Now we’re going to have three really, really big tents,” she said.
The event raised $10,000 in 2011, $17,000 in 2012 and $20,000 in 2013. The goal of Sunday’s fundraiser is $25,000.
“Children’s Hospital is really impressed with us. We have funded a lot of really neat projects,” O’Harrow said.
The community continues to impress her with its generosity.
“We’re not that big of a community, and we’ve had such good turn-out, and they’re so generous with their money,” she said. “It feels really good.”
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