Fifth Annual Babies Heart Run Will At Once Touch and Break Your Heart

by Ellyn Santiago

Prepare to have your heartstrings tugged.  

There are a very few things more heartbreaking than to see a sick baby in a neonatal ward. As painful as it is for all of us, for the parents and the families, the agony is almost unendurable. But endure they must, for the sake of the child and themselves. The families of babies in intensive care wards at Lawrence + Memorial and Yale-New Haven hospitals wait and worry; they live at the hospital, often. No time, energy, and frequently, no money even to take care of themselves. Eating in cafeterias, sleeping on chairs, unwashed, unshaven, and weary.    

Nina and Jay Bills of Groton found themselves here; their daughter was born (after an emergency C-Section) with a heart condition. The couple traveled from L+M to Yale and back again. They lived in hospital neonatal waiting rooms and hallways, and at their daughter’s bedside. What they would not have given for a hot shower, a few bucks for food, a motel room nearby when the Groton couple were in New Haven.  

“We both worked full time and we didn’t qualify for extra financial help,” Nina said.  “If someone had handed us a gift card for, say gas, we would have been s grateful.”  

Isabella, now four, survived and while she still has the heart condition which requires medications and frequent runs to Boston Children’s Hospital, the family’s suffering and struggles inspired them to help others in the same situation.  

The couple created Babies Heart Run in 2009 to raise money for care packages for families of babies in the L+M and Yale-New Haven neonatal units. The care packages now include a $700 VISA gift card, $500 gas card, $200 Stop & Shop card, Subway and other fast food restaurant gift cards and tons of awesome travel size toiletries among other items.  

“We wanted families to get help from someone that knows what you’re going through,” Nina said. In 2012, 14 large care package baskets stuffed to the brim were given to families that too were not receiving any other assistance and we nonetheless struggling; missing work and living in waiting rooms.    

“We just sent a basket to a Niantic firefighter and his wife whose baby had been in Yale for three weeks,” Nina said. “That’s what we do.”  

The group raises the funds and creates the baskets and the hospitals connect the families with the help.  

The Fifth annual Babies Heart Run is part motorcycle run, part family reunion, and part family-style get-together, now also featuring a Car Cruise and family and kid-friendly vendors. The motorcycle run raises money – and awareness – the event brings families together for a day of fun and camaraderie.  

When the Bills first started Babies Heart Run almost five years ago, they raised $700.  Last year, more than 350 motorcyclists rode, more than two-dozen classic cars showed up, more than 500 people with nearly 50 volunteers, the event raised $14,000.    

And Babies Heart Run is all over the community: Groton Elks, Connecticut Tigers , 99 Restaurant in Groton – they have an event coming up at with a community group near you.  

The event is in August, but the group is looking for riders, vendors and donations now. They have a great website with lots more information about sponsorships, riding and on how to become a vendor for the Sunday, Aug. 18 Fifth annual Babies Heart Run.