Columbia Falls High School junior Hazel Alexander was driving home on Jan. 9 when she was struck by a driver in a stolen vehicle attempting to evade police. Sustaining significant trauma, she was treated at Logan Health before ALERT flew her to Seattle for additional care and surgery.
The morning after the accident, cross country coach Jim Peacock learned how critical Hazel’s condition was, including multiple broken bones, a stroke and internal injuries. He then started thinking about ways he and the team could support her.
“It was coming to my head that the kid was going to have a very long path to recovery, extended hospital stays, and you know, she was still in critical care,” Peacock said. “In my head, I was rolling through it going well, what can we do as a team to help her, help the family? Is there anything that we can do? And so, I was immediately starting to think fundraisers.”
When he got back into town a day later, his phone pinged with a text from another cross country runner. Some teammates had been talking and wanted to do something for Hazel, suggesting a fundraising event.
The following Monday, the Columbia Falls cross country team gathered at school and, while Hazel endured a day of surgery in Seattle, they began to map out a 24-hour run-a-thon, or Hazel-a-thon, as senior runner and organizer River Blazejewski called it. Plans progressed quickly, with runners collecting pledges from local businesses based on completed laps around the track. They built spreadsheets and pulled the event together in two weeks.
“It’s hard in situations like these to not resort to straight anger, you know. But when it first happened, I think we were all just in shock,” Blazejewski said. “My first thought though was you know, we got to get something together.”
As the runners finished their warmup on the Jan. 23 start date, a few hundred community members trickled onto the track to join in. Just before the scheduled start time at 4 p.m., an ALERT helicopter touched down just outside the field in another show of support. A minute later, the runners were off.
A standout cross country runner, a volunteer at St. Richard Catholic Church, and a beloved employee at Norm’s Soda Fountain in Kalispell, Hazel’s prominent local profile meant that news of her accident quickly spread through the community. A teammate employed at Uptown Hearth stirred the Columbia Falls coffee shop to donate 15% of profits to Hazel from a specialty blend of roasted beans named after her.
Flathead Running Company announced a raffle featuring four pairs of new running shoes and socks and entry into a local race. The $5 raffle tickets are available for purchase in the store until the end of the month. At another fundraiser this Saturday at Patriotic American Brewery from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., $1 from every pint and a proceeds from raffle will be donated to Hazel.
A week before the run-a-thon, Hazel’s coworkers and employer at Norm’s Soda Fountain held a fundraiser, opting to donate all tips and proceeds from some sales over the weekend of Jan. 16. Hazel has worked at Norm’s for about two years, Norm’s Soda Fountain owner Beth Pirrie said, and the close-knit staff jumped at the opportunity to pitch in.
“I was completely blown away by the number of people who showed up,” Pirrie said.
Wearing T-shirts with “Hugs & Hearts for Hazel” printed on the back, the soda jerks worked away as a persisting line waited outside the door on Saturday. Pirrie watched as friends from Hazel’s church community, cross country teammates, a nurse from Hazel’s ALERT crew, and those who didn’t even know her showed up to order food or just drop off cash into a donation jar. Someone who had never been to Montana but had seen a news clip of the event called Pirrie to ask where he could send his money, donating $250.
By the end of the weekend, Norm’s had raised over $20,000 dollars – also quantifiable as 387 burgers, 176 baskets of fries, 231 hand-scooped milkshakes, 1,304 ice cream cones and 170 pounds of candy, Pirrie counted.
“It’s just heartwarming and kind of renews some of our faith in humanity and people,” Pirrie said. “To see so much of it all at once was overwhelming but heartwarming in all the best ways.”
Hazel’s family started an online GiveSendGo account with a goal of raising $100,000. Donations will pay for medical expenses, including flights, surgeries, hospitalizations, and recovering therapy, her family wrote, and provide support for Hazel’s six siblings at home while her parents travel to and from Seattle. As of Feb. 12, the online platform had raised over $83,000.
Planning out laps with the team prior to the 24-hour run-a-thon, Peacock posed a goal of 750 laps, based on the average pace of teammates, though he kept to himself his goal of 1,000. A runner stayed on the track at all times through the cold January night and into the following afternoon. Community members and local cross country members from nearby high schools showed up at all hours throughout the event.
After 24 hours, Peacock checked the laps. The team had run around the track 1,580 times, just under 400 miles. The run-a-thon raised over $40,000 dollars to go toward Hazel’s medical expenses and her family.
“This kid just models who we should be,” Peacock said. “She’s friendly and hardworking and driven … she’s just got this very kind, kind soul. You add to it what happened to her, and you know, she did nothing wrong. She was in the wrong spot.”
“When something like that happens to somebody, you have this urge, this natural desire that you want to find a way to help …There’s not a lot you can do. You feel helpless,” Peacock continued. “For the cross country team, this gave them a place to put their energy and gave them a means where they could help or feel like they were contributing to some way to Hazel’s benefit. I felt like the community was coming together with the same thing in mind.”
“I know Hazel’s going to be OK because she has that kind of support behind her,” he said.
According to Hazel’s CaringBridge, an online platform the family has used to keep the community updated on her recovery, Hazel is expected to return to the Flathead Valley on Saturday to continue her recovery at home.