UM racers add 'Grace' note to Hotter 'n' Hell
A post-ride photo was only appropriate for Dr. Jeannine Hatt (foreground) and some of her "Race for Grace" cohorts.
Pastor Mike Nichols admitted, jokingly, that no one told him before he was appointed to Waples Memorial UMC, Denison, that he and wife, Janice, would be expected to ride in the "Race for Grace."
BY JOHN A. LOVELACE
Special Correspondent
Those who were there remember the Sunday morning last year when Dr. Jeannine Hatt rode a bicycle down the aisle of her church’s sanctuary to promote an international health cause she had participated in for eight years.
This year the pediatrician didn’t repeat her two-wheeled approach at Waples Memorial UMC in Denison. Publicity, including her two articles in the NTC Reporter, had spread the word.
As a result, she and a couple of dozen other cyclists–most but not all United Methodists–rode the third annual “Race for Grace” fund-raiser on Saturday, Aug. 29. Numerically, they were only one small part of Wichita Falls’ famed Hotter ‘n’ Hell 100 at Wichita Falls, the nation’s largest “century” with a record 14,205 riders this year.
The “Grace” in “Race for Grace” is Grace Children’s Hospital and Pediatric Center in Port-au-Prince, Haiti. It’s the only fundraiser approved by Hotter ‘n’ Hell officials.
In three years, through “sponsorships” of at least $100 for each rider and other contributions, Dr. Hatt and her fellow riders have raised about $70,000. All monies raised reach the hospital through United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) Advance giving.
Most “Race for Grace” riders, including Waples Senior Pastor Mike Nichols and his wife, Janice, completed 25 miles, then headed for shade and lunch provided by volunteers from Floral Heights UMC in the “Race for Grace” tent near the finish line. Janice Nichols admitted that training for and participating in the “Race” had forced her and her husband, former superintendent of the Dallas South District, “out of our comfort zone.”
For Pastor Allen W. Snider of Lakeway UMC in Pottsboro, it was a different story. He bikes an estimated 2,000 miles per year for recreation and fitness, so his 50 miles on Aug. 29 were, in effect, another day at the office. His two daughters and son each rode 25 miles. Wife Judy “sat this one out.” He estimated that Lakeway Church raised about $400 for the “Race for Grace.”
Dr. Hatt and her husband, Dr. Chuck Phelps, a radiologist who celebrated his 59th birthday in Wichita Falls, began volunteer on-location, hands-on medical service 20 years ago. But about eight years ago another veteran medical volunteer, nurse-educator Dr. Ellen Palmer, advised Dr. Hatt to become additionally effective as a director of an international health organization.
Subsequently Dr. Hatt joined the board of International Child Care USA, the organization whose fl agship is Grace Children’s Hospital and Pediatric Clinic in Haiti. Other ICC USA board members include Dr. Palmer, wife of the Rev. Jim Palmer at First UMC, McKinney; Stacy Waggoner, board president, a 20-year resident of New York City who grew up at Floral Heights UMC in Wichita Falls during the pastorate of Dr.Jim Palmer, and her sister, Lysle Huddleston of Wichita Falls, a member of Floral Heights.
Ms. Huddleston recalls that three or four years ago a Canadian consultant met with the ICC USA board to explore new ways of fund-raising. The consultant said one method he had heard of was a sponsored bicycle ride. To which, according to Ms. Huddleston, “Jeannine said ‘we ought to get a group to ride.’” Thus the “Race for Grace” was born!
On its Advance web page (#418520), Grace Children’s Hospital and Pediatric Clinic’s two-fold mission is described as:
“1. Hospital care for children and families with tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, and respiratory infections.
2. To provide clinical health care for children after discharge from Grace Children’s Hospital.”
The mission statement also says, “At least 250 in-patients and 90,600 out-patients will receive services at the hospital each year.”
As pediatrician Dr. Hatt described it in her NTC Reporter article last February, “Programs such as these are vital in a country such as Haiti, which has the unfortunate distinction of being the poorest country and having the highest child mortality rate in our hemisphere.”
As only one part of her involvement with ICC USA, Dr. Hatt has a goal of enlisting at least one rider in each North Texas UM church to ride in the “Race for Grace” portion of the 2010 Hotter ‘n’ Hell 100 in Wichita Falls.
“I know it’s probably not going to happen,” she says while enjoying a barbecue sandwich in the “Race for Grace” tent near the 2009 fi nish line. “But that doesn’t keep me from trying.”
