HOLLIS, NH – With golf carts ready to go, a nearly picture-perfect day graced the green at Overlook Golf Course in New Hampshire in support of The Heartfelt Dreams Foundation.
Joined by Red Sox legend Jim Rice, golfers enjoyed a classic bbq lunch on the Overlook terrace for the third annual event with a mouthwatering selection of pulled pork, mac ‘n’ cheese, wings and ribs. “You can’t come out and play golf and not have fun,” Rice smiled. For the 46 golfers on the course, behind every drive was the knowledge funds would go to support the Heartfelt Dreams Foundation.
From the standpoint of providing support and education to families who receive a congenital heart disease diagnosis, Eric & Lori Ankerud speak from the heart with personal experience. “She was born at a time where most of the infants born with a congenital heart defect did not live for the first year because there was no surgical procedure to correct the condition. She happened to be at the right place at the right time – she was one of the first babies in this country to have that surgery performed,” explains Eric, CEO, President & Co-founder of Heartfelt Dreams Foundation.
Established in 2018, The Heartfelt Dreams program is unique in working directly with impacted families to provide free transportation, hotel accommodations, and guidance in finding the speciality cardiologists congenital heart disease patience require. Leading the charge in care for the disease, Massachusetts General Hospital works in collaboration with the foundation. “Because there is no cure, these patients are lifelong.”
The diagnosis of congenital heart disease is the last thing new parents expect when they’re expecting – yet the most common among birth defects in the US, accounting for nearly 40,000 babies with the condition born each year. Of that figure, 25% of those infants require immediate heart surgery just to survive. Due to this fact, Ankerud says, the couple are contacted on a nearly daily basis. “There’s high medical costs associated with these babies because they need immediate surgery after birth.”
The good news? That care is working. The bad news? A good portion of the medical community is still striving for a cure. “More and more of these patients are surviving, but now they’re surviving into an adulthood where cardiologists & the medical community don’t know what to do with them.” Even yet, some who receive the diagnosis later in life have gone decades without knowing they have had it all along. “They go through life with the knowledge that they may need care in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s or older.”
For supporters like Rice, coming to the course meant leaving with a new understanding of the foundation’s mission and impact – something Ankerud says he hopes all golfers can walk away with it. “That’s one thing I like about being in the Red Sox organization. You come to the Red Sox, you only know Jimmy Fund. But when you’re talking about charity you are part of New England in charity.”
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Emmalyn Reid 