Leigh Dittman / Tampa Tribune photo by Lance Rothstein
By Valerie Kalfrin
The Tampa Tribune, Dec. 20, 2015
TAMPA — Leigh Dittman is proof that small actions over time can have a huge impact.
There are the painful ones. With osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease, the Lutz teenager is prone to fractures. Any bump can feel more like a blow. At 15, Leigh has had 36 broken bones and 14 surgeries.
There are the necessary ones, like the medicine she receives through an IV drip over three days every six months to strengthen her bones and muscles.
And then there are the awe-inspiring ones. When Leigh was 3, she wanted to thank the doctors, nurses and other staff at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Tampa, where she’d been going since she was 3 weeks old. Any time she broke a bone, or needed physical therapy or occupational therapy, she was there.
So her family organized a fundraiser in the backyard around her birthday in June. That first year, roughly 60 people came. The family raised about $5,000.
Twelve years later, that annual get-together has grown, and so have the donations. This fall, more than 800 people came to the Dittmans’ fundraiser at the India Cultural Center on Lynn Road in Tampa.
The collective total raised over the years? Just over $1 million.
“It’s very humbling,” said Leigh, who attends Gaither High School. An “A” student with two younger sisters, she plays the violin and works on the school newspaper. She walks with tripod canes but navigates crowds in an electric-blue wheelchair so she can get around safely: “I’m in this little bubble. If anyone bumps into me, they hit the chair.”
Her favorite part of the fundraiser is reconnecting with friends. “We’re all dancing around as everyone’s leaving and we’re cleaning up.”
The event takes about 10 months to organize and now draws silent-auction items from the Buccaneers, the Rays, the Lightning, the Gold & Diamond Source and other businesses. “We’ve done it for so many years that if I don’t call them, they’ll call me,” said Ellen Dittman, who works part-time as a teacher. “It’s heartwarming to see the community come together because they just care.”
Shriners Hospitals for Children has a network of 22 nonprofit facilities across North America. The organization specializes in pediatric orthopedics and care for burns, spinal-cord injuries, and cleft lips and palates.
The Tampa hospital has an annual operating budget of $15 million provided by an endowment through the main Shriners organization, third-party insurance payments, bequests, donations and fundraisers, said Alicia Argiz-Lyons, director of donor development. Local donations so far this year have contributed about $2 million.
“We treat many children regardless of a family’s ability to pay,” Argiz-Lyons said. “A lot of the care we provide is from the time a child is an infant until they’re 18.”
Argiz-Lyons, who first met the Dittmans when Leigh was an infant, said the family’s support is “astounding.” Leigh’s father, David Dittman, a city fire captain, became a Shriner and is part of the hospital’s board of governors. “They’re just an extremely generous, philanthropic family.”
Sometimes the Dittmans have asked that the money raised be spent on something specific, such as backpacks so children receiving IV medications like Leigh could be active during treatment, Argiz-Lyons said. Mostly, they deferred to the hospital, which used the money for spinal surgeries and other care.
“They were just very selfless about using the money for whatever we needed,” Argiz-Lyons said.
The hospital hopes to purchase a bone-density scanner with the latest money raised, Argiz-Lyons said. This enhanced form of X-ray technology measures bone loss; patients currently have to go to another location for the scan, then return to the hospital to review the results. “We want to offer that as part of our program to make the treatment seamless.”
Once she turns 18, Leigh will be ineligible to be treated at Shriners. But she might wind up there in a new capacity: She wants to study orthopedic pediatrics in college, inspired by the nurses and other helpers she’s known.
“It’s made me want to be like them,” she said. “I want to tell kids it’s OK, you’re gonna get through this like me and do whatever you want to do.”
From http://www.tbo.com/health/hometown-hero-lutz-teen-helps-raise-1-million-for-shriners-20151220/