What do you miss most when you lose a child? For Stacey Levy, it’s her daughter’s voice—rich and soulful with a weighty timbre that filled an entire room. Stacey recalls how the show tunes her daughter, Ellie, sang in countless theater productions used to put smiles on her audiences’ faces.
It was a voice that Ellie also used throughout her battle with cystic fibrosis, Stacey says. During her many hospital stays, Ellie would bond with other pediatric patients facing life-threatening diagnoses. Without fail, she would ask her mother how they could help. “What are we going to do about it?” Stacey recalls Ellie asking insistently.
It’s been more than 10 years since Stacey has heard her daughter’s voice: Ellie passed away in 2014. But for the past 24 years—a full year longer than Ellie’s short life—Stacey has been working to fulfill her daughter’s request. In short, she’s been doing something about it.
In 2001, Stacey and her husband, Brian, started the Reach for the Stars Foundation, an organization dedicated to helping critically ill children by alleviating the financial hardships that the children’s families face. It wasn’t long before Reach for the Stars enlisted the support of local luminaries—from former Miami Dolphins quarterback Jay Fiedler to hospitality executive Jeffrey Klein to City of Aventura Commissioner Cindy Orlinsky.
In order to honor Ellie’s memory, Reach for the Stars Foundation has since changed its name to Ellie’s Army Foundation. But the need for financial aid for families with critically ill children remains unchanged. “We can help these families get back on their feet and not just put a bandage on the situation,” Stacey says.
Last year, more than 70 percent of the families that Ellie’s Army Foundation helped were either facing eviction or foreclosure or had already lost their homes. One family was living out of a car. Another was burdened with crushing credit card debt. Since 2017, the organization has given more than $900,000 in grants to more than 230 families like these—positively impacting more than 8,000 lives.
To raise these funds, Ellie’s Army puts on its annual Dirty Socks 5K Run & Walkathon, which will take place February 23 at the Aventura Library. Stacey describes it as “more than just a walk and run.” Food trucks dot the finish line, plus there’s a Rumba class, face painting stations, a teddy bear clinic, and a DJ who hypes the crowd of 600 participants.
And those “dirty socks”? Stacey says it’s a reference to a time when one of Ellie’s doctors encouraged her to get up and walk around the hospital hallways as a crucial step in helping her recover from a series of surgeries. “I want you to dirty your socks,” her surgeon had said.
Ellie did just that. Now, Stacey hopes that residents of Aventura and greater Miami-Dade County will do it too, finding their own voice to help local families in need.
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