Roselle woman forms marathon team to help Marklund
Life can turn on a dime, and no one knows that better than Roselle mom Liliana Olalde.
One afternoon in 1991, a driver slammed into their family's car at Golf and Higgins roads, seriously injuring Olalde's 1-month-old daughter, Jessica. The accident left the baby blind and with severe developmental disabilities. Not long after, Olalde lost her job, got divorced and was forced to temporarily move back home with her parents.
When Jessica turned 2, Olalde made the difficult decision to bring her to live in the Marklund Children's Home in Bloomingdale.
"I cried all the way home because I couldn't imagine leaving my child anywhere," she said.
Olalde visited Jessica regularly - sometimes at 11 p.m., after working a night shift - and always found her well cared for.
"If I didn't have Marklund to help me out, I would have had to quit work and maybe have been on public aid. It was so hard to find someone to take real good care of Jess with all the seizures and her other medical problems," she said.
Jessica died last February, at age 16, from complications related to pneumonia. But Olalde remains grateful to Marklund. So for the third straight year, the 40-year-old mother of seven and senior business analyst at HSBC in Wood Dale is going to run the Chicago Marathon to raise money for the local nonprofit.
In the past two years, she's raised more than $8,000 for Marklund with her running. This year she's trying to expand her efforts and form a group to run together.
They don't have to live near her, train with her or even raise money. They just need to be committed to running for a good cause - helping Marklund's group homes in Bloomingdale and Geneva.
"It's not about raising a big dollar amount. It's about raising awareness," she said. "Marklund's staff, the doctors, volunteers, the amazing programs and all the extras like the holiday parties and the activities - they all made an impact on Jessica's life."
So far, Olalde has 10 people in her marathon group. She's hopes to have 25 before the mid-April cutoff for marathon applications. The race is Oct. 11.
When people aren't directly connected to a charity, their participation tends to fizzle out. That's not the case with Olalde. Even though her daughter died more than a year ago, she continues to give "100 percent," even if it's just finding volunteers for their events, said Stevie Armbruster, Marklund's development coordinator.
"Her biggest thing is to get awareness out about Marklund. She wants people to know who we are and what we do," Armbruster said. "She's amazing."
Olalde says her daughter's memory is what inspires her to keep helping - and running.
"There's a purpose for my running now," she said. "I think that's what keeps me going are the memories. If the accident didn't happen, I think she would be running right along side of me. Her life was hard. She went through so much. For me to run 26 miles is nothing compared to what she went through."
<div class="infoBox"> <h1>More Coverage</h1> <div class="infoBoxContent"> <div class="infoArea"> <h2>Related links</h2> <ul class="moreWeb"> <li><a href="http://www.marklund.org/getting_involved/chicago_marathon.htm">Marklund marathon group</a></li> </ul> </div> </div> </div>