IUDM awareness week ends with Rockin’ for Riley

Eight years ago, IU alumna Julie Lesh was only looking to expand her family by one. She had no idea that events that year would eventually bring her into a family of thousands.

In 2002, Lesh’s daughter, Riley, was born 15 weeks premature, weighing only a pound and a half. The next three months of Riley’s fragile life would be spent in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.

Lesh, now the mother of a perfectly healthy 8-year-old, said her time at Riley Hospital inspired her to help other children as a full-time passion.

“When (Riley) was about a year old, I saw a commercial for Riley (Hospital) on TV, and I called and said ‘What can I do?’,” Lesh said. “‘What can I do to help because you guys gave me my world and I need to give back?’”

Since that phone call, Lesh has gone above and beyond, giving back by participating in 65 dance marathons and countless other Riley Hospital events such as Kirkwood’s Rockin’ for Riley that took place Saturday.

The free event, which featured eight live bands, carnival games and stories from Riley families, was the second for the now-annual street festival. It also served as a conclusion to IU Dance Marathon’s Ryan and Ashley Week 2010.

The week is a celebration of the lives of Ryan White, a former Riley patient who died of AIDS in 1990 at the age of 18, and Ashley Crouse, an IUDM Executive Council member who died in 2005.

“We started Ryan and Ashley Week to honor her and honor her legacy and also just to get everyone together and have a great time,” said Casey Crouse, Ashley’s brother and former IUDM president. “Just like what she would’ve wanted.”

The week also featured an awareness walk through campus Friday afternoon.
“Ashley is the reason for a lot of people being involved in Dance Marathon,” Crouse said. “To me, that’s incredible because it’s her character and her personality that kind of motivate people to be involved in this and help out Riley (Hospital).”

Though IUDM has multiple events throughout the year, IUDM Vice President Internal Daniel Hinds said that motivation to start Rockin’ for Riley was to have a major event in the spring. Dance Marathon, which takes place in November, remains the group’s main event.
Because of the free admission to Rockin’ for Riley, it was meant to serve as more of an awareness event than a fundraiser.

“All the hours we put in, even if we don’t meet the families that it helps, we know that it’s helping someone, somewhere,” Hinds said.

Aside from raising awareness for the hospital, IUDM events give patients a place to come and have fun.

“We have kids who come to the marathon every year or an event like this every year,” Crouse said. “They’ve been talking about it for months, and they’re very young.”

No matter the size or amount of funds raised at an event, the passion that IUDM workers put into their work doesn’t change.

“The motivation’s always the same,” he said. “Just do whatever we can and saturate every weekend we can with events for Riley Hospital.”