BAR BIKE RALLY

The bar bike rally started many many years ago with a decision to do some good for the community. Yearly we meet at Stulgins in Villa Park on a Saturday morning typically in late September, and we ride our bicycles to various planned out bars along the beautiful Prairie Path with one common goal. TO RAISE MONEY FOR A LOCAL FAMILY IN NEED. It’s always a blast and it’s always nice to see a community come together to help one of their own.

If you’d like to join this year or support our cause as sponsor please feel free to email us at events@vpcharities.com or join our facebook group at

Bar Bike Ride - VP

Below is information on this years beneficiary as well as photos from the event.

Owens Journey
(written and submitted by his mother)

I remember where I was standing in our house when my OB/GYN called and said "One of your blood test came back positive for down syndrome". She recommended a second level ultrasound to confirm the results. Those days seemed agonizing to wait. The ultrasound confirmed no down syndrome “just” an isolated heart defect. I thought great we can deal with that. I was 14 weeks pregnant and had a three-year-old and a two-year-old at home.

The rest of the pregnancy was much of a blur. All I remember was I needed to protect this baby and keep him growing and staying healthy until he came into this world. As we continued to meet with specialist we made our way to Advocate Christ Hospital in Oak Lawn and began our care of the best medical staff worldwide.

Owen was ultimately diagnosed with transposition of great arteries. He had other things that followed with that such as a VST, ASD and a coarctation of his aorta. We knew nothing of this medical verbiage and became educated very quickly.

After he was born successfully by c-section on his due date at 7 lbs. 6 oz. his first surgery was at nine days old. He did well and went home two weeks later. More surgeries and procedures followed three months after that, two years after that and ultimately another open heart when he was 18 months old.

His next open heart wasn’t again until he was seven years old and it was a valve replacement. Went in on a Friday and discharged on a Sunday so we were very lucky. That held us until June 2020. Overall, with his cardiac journey, he has mainly only been on one or two medications. We’ve had the privilege of being able to live a somewhat normal life at home as a normal adolescent and teen. Only growing into sports restrictions as they got more intense through high school.

This is where his journey intensifies. The week of June 22 we went in for our valve replacement, which was routine, but coming out of surgery wasn’t so routine. He seem to hit every complication afterwards. The next day his vitals were going in the wrong direction so they re-intubated him. Wednesday he suffered a mild heart attack . Thursday they rushed him into a catheter procedure in the morning to discover he had 100% blocked left coronary arteries and followed that up with emergency open heart bypass surgery in the afternoon.

Our time in the PCICU at Advocate was an up-and-down roller coaster for about two weeks. When we got home, I called to check in and told them one my minor detail, he wasn’t keeping food down . They advised us to come back in early for our follow up appointment which resulted in getting readmitted for another two weeks. The end of that stay resulted in an AICD pacemaker. Finally we got to go home. Now we moved from the congenital heart defect world to the heart failure world. Appointments were weekly revisiting the hospital. Medications went from one pill daily to 25 pills.

This is where transplant conversations casually began. In the meantime we were to contiue the heart failure medication regime hoping that the heart would improve. That up and down journey worked for about 6 months but a mri, near the holidays, confirmed that scar tissue from the heart attack caused irreversible damage and the medications were no longer effective.

So we cautiously had to leave our care at Advocate, our home for cardiac care for 16 years and start our new journey at Lurie's Children Hospital in Chicago. It was very difficult to leave but are finding a new cardiac family with the medical staff. NEVER , NEVER forgetting where we started!!

We were admitted on March 15th ,2021. The next week they placed an impella device and officially listed him as 1A on the transplant list on March 26th. Owen is currently doing very well. He is a regular comedian for the staff. He is staying very positive and building his strength for his recovery after transplant. He said "Mom I am going to use this next heart to the fullest. I'm going to stay healthy, eat healthy and live my best life". His father, 2 older brothers , one younger sister, extended family and friends are amazed at him every day. He has matured beyond his years and we can't wait to see how he is going to make a difference in so many lives. GOD has wonderful plans for him.

On April 24th we got the news from the doctor that they accepted a heart for Owen. As much excitement as we have for Owen to start his new life much gratefulness, thankfulness and prayers goes to the donor and their family who are generously giving life to others.

thank you to everyone for your prayers. August 26 marks four months post transplant and he is doing well. There has been some challenges but overall he is continuing to improve and getting healthier every day!

Thank you for taking the time to read his journey.

Icon by: Jeannie Creative, LLC

DONOR LIST

HERO TIER DONORS

THOMAS FEZZEY

TIA DUDERSTADT

SARAH KEYSOR

RHONDA KEYSOR

GLEN KEYSOR

JENNIFER PHILLIPS

STEFANO DURDIC

TRACI DURDIC

CHRISTOPHER MCCLEARN

CHRIS CONVERSA

JONATHAN HENRY

ADAM STEMPEL

KELLY STEMPEL

STEVE MURPHY

JAMES PAUL

ELLEN PAUL

KIM SCERINE

JIM BECKER

FRIEND/FAMILY TIER DONORS

MISSY SIFRER

LYNN YOUPCHICK

ERIC YOUPCHICK

CHRIS HAYES

MICHELLE HAYES

CONNOR KOPP

MICHELLE MCCLEARN

MICHAEL HALL

KRISTEN BARREDA

RICK SLOAN

HOLLY SLOAN

MIKE WALSH

LISA WISNER

TONY HALL

DOMINIC MCCLEARN

ALISHA MCCLEARN

MIKE RODRIGUEZ

SARAH HUMBOLDT

SHERI GALLAGHER

AMY VESELY

RICH SCERINE

MATT PITTMAN

NATALIE WEST

PHILLIP WEST

PATRICK TRETINA

DAWB HUGHES

JEFF HUGHES

SHAWN HUGHES

THOMAS MAY

STEPHANI CORDANO

KEITH KUSTRA

BRIAN SCHREMP

ANA SCHREMP

MARK SWE

NEIGHBOR TIER DONORS

CHRISTOPHER SMITH

JIM MCCLEARN

AMANDA MAYDA

COURTNEY WARREN

WILLIAM DWEYER

KAREN MARNELL

DIANA BOOK

JASON LAUB

DALE POLEN

JOHN MCCARTHY

JO MCCARTHY

KELLY KOPP

JIM COURTNEY

JEAN COURTNEY

BRENDA SMITH

BONNIESUE CONSIDINE

ERIKA ENGERS

STEPHAN MCCLEARN

JENNY MCCLEARN

LAUREL MINER

CARYN CONVERSA

MARTY LORENCE

SARA HAYES

JP FINAN

SARAH VESELY

SAM TURK

MELANIE BORKOWSKI

JOHN BORKOWSKI

CHARLES HORN

KATIE MAGNUSON

KENNETH SMITH

BRIANA GLUSZEK

ASHLEIGH BRAUN

DONNA HAYES

CARRIE PIZARRO

RICH PIZARRO

IAN ALVAREZ

JEFF HAYES

JULIE KOPP

MICHAEL KOPP

LORI HAYES

JULIA VESELY

TODD ANDRE

PAT O'CONNOR

MARK BLONDELL

CHERYL WOLF

WILL NELSON

OLIVIA FAVIA

ILIANA JUAREZ

PETER GROLLO

TERRY WOLF

ERIC MCCARTHY

RICHARD DUFFEY

MARY TURK

FRANK TURK

KERRY FINLEY

DANIELLE STIMAC

GAYLE WINN

GRANT GRZADZIEL

SUE ARENZ

LAURIE MELVIN

STAN NOWICKI

SARAH RODRIGUEZ

JASON RODRIGUEZ

TAYLOR EGAN

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