Toy Drive/Open House Benefitting CHOA and Wolfson Children’s Hospital

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Live Oak Fitness is hosting a Toy Drive to benefit Children’s Health Care of Atlanta (CHOA) and Wolfson Children’s Hospital on Saturday, July 8. In addition to the toy drive, Live Oak Fitness, Quintanar Running, F3, and St. Simons Island Pilates and Yoga will hold a variety of training and fitness sessions Saturday morning at the new Live Oak Fitness. 

Event highlights include:

• Toy drive in honor of Chase Kickin’ Cancer and Miss Charlie’s heart surgery anniversary! Toys being collected all week for Wolfson and CHOA!
• Admission is 1 NEW Toy and is open to all ages and fitness levels
• 9:00 am - 1:00 pm Tour the new Live Oak Fitness facility
• 9:00 am F3 Crew hosting a 5K RUCK
• 9:00 am - Quintanar Running hosting a 5k training run
• 10:00 am - Workout session with Live Oak Fitness Performance Coaches
• 10:30 am – Yoga session with St. Simons Island Pilates and Yoga
• 11:00 am Grill out compliments of Live Oak Fitness

The event celebrates Ms. Charlie Young’s 5-year anniversary of a successful atrial septal defect (ASD) open heart surgery and Mr. Chase Busby’s continued fight against Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL).

Charlie is the daughter of Charlie and Bre Young and is a rising 2^nd grader at Oglethorpe Point Elementary School. At Charlie's 1-year checkup the pediatrician detected a heart murmur. After a visit to the cardiologist in Savannah the family was told unexpected news that Charlie had a heart defect that would later require open-heart surgery. It was one of the biggest ASD's the physicians had ever seen! Charlie had an ASD, where 90% of her septum wasn't formed leaving two chambers of her heart connected. The Young’s waited until Charlie was 3 years old to go ahead with surgery and was referred to CHOA. Dr. Kanter, the chief of surgery at CHOA, preformed the procedure on July 3, 2012. Charlie was a amazing through out the entire process. She spent one night in the ICU and only 2 nights in the step down unit! She was discharged only 3 days after open-heart surgery!

Her mother Bre says: “She showed us through hard things it is possible to smile and be strong! We celebrate her yearly progress by collecting toys and donations to the awesome people and children of CHOA! They made a scary, lonely experience become a memory of strength and pride of our Charlie! These donations truly help parents get through these hospital stays! From books to DVD’s and arts and crafts, we used it all to entertain her during our stay! An iPad goes a long way when getting a chest tube removed!”

Chase is the son of Chris and Cassie Busby and is a rising kindergartener at St. Simons Elementary School. On August 25, 2015, Chase Busby was diagnosed with ALL. He achieved remission on September 30, 2015, but has to follow up with chemotherapy treatments until October of 2018. Chase's first 9 months of treatment were intensive, but he handled them like a champ. Currently, Chase is in the maintenance phase of his treatment plan. It is the least intensive of the phases but lasts the longest. In this phase, Chase takes a chemo pill every night. He also has blood counts taken every a month and receives additional chemo via spinal tap every three months.

For more information about the CHOA/Wolfson Toy Drive you can contact studio owner Chris Busby at 912-268-2594 or chris@liveoakfitness.net. You can register for the event on Facebook by searching for the event or on the Live Oak Fitness website, liveoakfitness.net. Admission to the free workout/training sessions and cookout is a new, unwrapped toy. Donations are also being accepted from anyone who cannot attend and can be dropped off at Live Oak Fitness, 545 Skylane Road, St. Simons Island.