5K Run, Walk N' Roll scheduled for June 4 at Beadle Park

CRESCO - Easton Hodges has GRIN1, a rare disorder.

He will be turning three on June 3, so his family is hoping as many who can celebrate, will attend a 5K Run, Walk ‘N Roll fund-raiser at Beadle Park on Sunday, June 4 from 3-7 p.m.

If you don’t want to do the run, stop by the park anyway and get some sustenance on a Sunday afternoon. The 5K starts at 4 p.m. on the bike trail behind Fareway.

Easton’s mom, Becky explained, “I wanted to introduce it as a run/walk/roll because I wanted to encourage anyone, of any age, to participate in this whether you want to run, walk or roll!  So if you’re in a stroller or a wheelchair or utilizing anything else on wheels I just wanted this to be open to EVERYONE!”

Totally Rolled Ice Cream will be serving its famous Rolled Ice Cream! Fat T’s “Fatty Wagon” will serve pulled pork sandwiches, gyros and supreme nachos. Both are gracious enough to be donating 20% of net profits back to Cure GRIN Foundation!

 

Easton’s history

“Currently, Easton is non-verbal, unable to sit, stand, crawl or walk on his own, BUT he continues to get stronger all the time,” said his mom, Becky.

“We knew through well child visits that he was not reaching milestones and his doctor (Dr. Goodner at Winneshiek Medical) could tell that he had hypotonia (which is low muscle tone). We got involved with physical therapy back in October 2020. In December 2020 and first part of 2021, there had been a few different tests done at Mayo, testing for certain things, that all came back fine. 

“We then ended up deciding to do Genetic Testing to get an answer and found out on Aug. 9, 2021 that he had GRIN1.”

Easton goes to therapy weekly, whether it is occupational or physical therapy. The days the family isn’t there, he does therapy at home and is also involved with Early Intervention Services through Keystone.

“As we ‘GET MOVING FOR GRI’, Easton’s birthday wish is to raise money to help fund research to find treatments and cures for his rare disorder and for all the other kiddos affected by GRI Disorders.

“The idea behind Run, Walk’N Roll is anyone, any age, is able to join whether you want to run, walk, or roll in a stroller, wheelchair or anything on wheels if you’d like!”

 

What is GRI?

According to the  CureGRIN Foundation, GRI Disorders are part of a larger family of genetic diseases related to ionotropic glutamate receptors. 

These receptors play an important role in learning and memory as well as other critical biological functions. 

The standard GRI genes are made up of hundreds of letters of genetic code. Sometimes the letters can appear in the wrong order, get swapped for different ones or be missed out altogether. Any of these occurrences can cause the gene to not work properly. 

The foundation has found that the most common variants in GRI genes are ‘missense’ variants, where one letter of DNA gets swapped for a different one.