Baltimore’s running community gave Dash Daichman a birthday celebration measured in miles, stroller wheels and a whole lot of heart. Nearly 200 runners and walkers gathered Saturday to mark the Towson child’s third birthday while supporting families connected to pediatric intensive care.
Dash’s Incredible 5K Dash began at 7:30 a.m. at Charm City Run Timonium, with 192 registered participants covering the 3.1-mile course, according to The Baltimore Sun. Michael and Michelle Daichman pushed Dash in a stroller along the route, which was bounded largely by East Seminary Avenue and Charmuth, Greenridge and York roads.
The event was designed as both a birthday tribute and a fundraiser, raising money and awareness for the University of Maryland Pediatric Intensive Care Unit Parent and Family Advisory Council and Jeremiah Program Baltimore. Two University of Maryland pediatric intensive care nurses who have cared for Dash also joined the family for the run, the Sun reported.
A 5K Built Around Families Who Need Backup
The beneficiaries gave the morning a purpose beyond celebrating one child. Jeremiah Program Baltimore supports single mothers and their children through education, career guidance, early childhood support and other two-generation services, according to the Jeremiah Program.
The other beneficiary is closely connected to Dash’s own medical journey. The University of Maryland Golisano Children’s Hospital says its pediatric intensive care program treats critically ill children while emphasizing family involvement in care, including parents’ participation in bedside discussions and daily planning, according to the University of Maryland Medical Center.
Charm City Run’s Timonium store, where the event began, is located at 1313 York Road and regularly hosts running and walking programs for participants of different experience levels. That welcoming approach helped make Saturday’s race feel less like a competition and more like a community showing up for a family it has come to know.
Dash’s Story Has Stayed With Baltimore Runners
Dash has lived with an undiagnosed neurodegenerative disorder since infancy, and his condition includes frequent seizure-like breath-holding episodes. A May profile by The Banner described a child who loves to eat, drink from a sippy cup and cuddle but cannot sit up unsupported, walk or speak in typical words.
His parents have spent much of the past year navigating frightening medical emergencies alongside the ordinary joys of raising a toddler. Dash stopped breathing for several minutes in February, later experienced another prolonged episode during a family trip to New Jersey, and still has episodes that can occur multiple times in a day.
Saturday’s run offered a different kind of milestone: not a finish time, but another birthday reached. With Dash riding at the center of the group and nurses, friends, walkers and runners surrounding his family, Baltimore turned three miles into a moving reminder that some of the city’s most important races are about making sure nobody has to travel a difficult course alone.
