The 11th Annual Run For Holland

Will Be May 4th, 2024

Register By Clicking Here

What we aim to solve?

Most families who are having a child with a disability have no clue what life is going to look like. Our aim is to raise awareness and support local organizations who help these families navigate a new way of life.

Our Mission:

Run For Holland wants people to be more educated about people with disabilities. They aren't that much different than anyone else and also add so much to communities. Run For Holland is an organization that helps a very small community but believes small groups making big impacts is the key to bettering community.

Why Holland

Adam & Brooke’s genetic counselor advised them in many ways throughout their pregnancy once they knew Holland had down syndrome. They had many questions and there were many calls and emails with Carolyn to help them understand and navigate this new road. One of Carolyn’s emails included a short story called “Welcome to Holland” by Emily Perl Kingsley. Reading the story brought on more tears and a relief that someone put into words how they were feeling. This story spoke to Adam and Brooke in such a special way that they started talking about using this story as inspiration for their daughter. They began to use that name when talking about her to see how it felt and from the beginning they both knew that this was the perfect name for their precious miracle! Please read the following excerpt:

“Welcome to Holland” By Emily Perl Kingsley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability – to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It’s like this……

When you’re going to have a baby, it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip – to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says,

“Welcome to Holland.”

“Holland?!?” you say. “What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.”

But there’s been a change in the flight plan. They’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It’s just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It’s just a different place. It’s slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around…. and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills….and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy… and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say

“Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.”

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away… because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But… if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things … about Holland.

Our Impact

Funds raised are all poured back into our community to support those with special needs. Click below to see our Grants Page

Grants Given