School full of angels

Jeff Benson

Barbara LaPointe didn’t even know fellow Corona del Mar residents

Doug and Jen Hansen and their underdeveloped 3-year-old daughter,

Angel, before last year. This year, LaPointe has mobilized hundreds

of people to help them.

Angel was born with severe birth defects, and doctors didn’t

expect her to live, LaPointe said. She was born three weeks

premature, her brain was one-quarter normal size, and she had an

underdeveloped frontal lobe -- limiting her speech, taste and motor

skills. She also had deformations to her legs, feet, fingers, toes

and digestive tract. Doctors said the likelihood of Angel walking or

talking was bleak.

Last year, the Hansens started Angels Charity and a 24-hour

“Angel’s Run” to help cover the costs of numerous corrective

procedures, to honor their daughter and to help other children born

with special needs. Their efforts inspired Runners World magazine to

feature them in a September 2003 story.

LaPointe, 33, read the story and wanted to get involved. The

fifth-grade teacher at Our Lady Queen of Angels School said the story

touched her because she loves kids and because the Hansens are

roughly the same age, and they live in her town.

It was only her first year at the school, but the determined

teacher mobilized her students and fellow teachers to pray for Angel.

She told her fifth-graders about the story and convinced many of them

to read it.

According to the story, Doug Hansen, who’d run 10 marathons before

Angel was born, began taking his daughter on runs with him when she

was only 6 months old, even though she slowed him down. The two have

gone on hundreds of runs together, with the help of a chariot-like

Baby Jogger and a leash that attaches to his wrist.

“So many of these kids could relate to a little blond baby and a

father who loves his child,” she said. “And I asked if we could help

them by praying.”

Word got around to the point where Angel became a pseudo-celebrity

at Our Lady Queen of Angels. Last year, the entire school got to meet

the blond-haired girl personally when she made a guest appearance in

March, LaPointe said. More than 800 people showed up for the April 3

Angel’s Run, and those from the school wore “Our Lady Queen of Angels

Supports Angel’s Run” T-shirts.

“I think it’s important for the kids to appreciate what they have

and to give back to the community,” she said. “When the kids saw her,

they were like: ‘Awww, it’s Angel!’ They care already, they relate to

her and they want her to be healthy.”

This year’s crop of students is just as anxious to meet her and to

help out, LaPointe said. She hopes they can help her raise awareness

so the school can hand over a huge check to Doug Hansen for kids with

disabilities.

“I was so touched by that article that I wanted to get the school

involved,” LaPointe said. “It goes beyond the classroom. They’ll be

helping others throughout their whole lives. Some kids are going to

run with it and some aren’t, but it’s heightened some awareness in

them.”