2011
On May 7, 2011, From the Heart honored 3 families.
Tyler Harlicker was diagnosed with B-precursor Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) on December 1st, 2009. Tyler has undergone months of treatment while struggling to fight this disease. Throughout his journey, Tyler continues to teach others what it means to have courage and perseverance, passion and grace, humor and love. Tyler has a great zest for life and, even on his darkest days, Tyler thinks more about others than he thinks of himself. Tyler has wisdom beyond his years and is determined to leave this world a better place than when he found it. Due to Tyler’s determination to make a difference in the lives of others, a portion of this year’s race proceeds will be used to start a scholarship fund in Tyler’s name. This annual scholarship will be awarded to a high school senior who leads their life, like Tyler, on a few basic principles:
- Show compassion to others
- Live with courage
- Love endlessly
- Give from the heart
- Make a difference in the world
Tyler is the son of Tim (1984 OHS graduate) and Susan Harlicker. Tyler is a second grader at McKinley Elementary School in Owatonna. He has two older brothers, Dillon (21), Jacob (11), and one little sister, Lillie (3).
Nacia Olson, a mom of 4 year old twins, a daughter, and a teacher was diagnosed with Stage 2 Grade 2 breast cancer in Oct. 2010. In addition to the cancer, which was also found in Nacia’s lymph nodes, the medical diagnosis included four additional tumors. Nacia will complete her sixteenth chemotherapy treatment by the end of March. Following chemotherapy, Nacia will have surgery and six weeks of daily radiation, scheduled to begin in May. She is a lifelong resident of Dodge Center and a 12 year veteran teacher for the Owatonna School District in the Language Arts department at the Area Learning Center. She is committed to her students, working full-time during her cancer treatments while sharing this experience with them.
Nacia is winning this battle with the full support of her 4-year-old twins, Mallory and Max. Nacia and her children are very thankful for the daily assistance that is provided by her family, friends, and co-workers.
Nacia sums it up this way, “Everyone seems committed to battle this alongside me and I couldn’t be more grateful for their support.”
Nacia is the 38-year daughter of Candy and Tony Mulholland and Lowell and Liz Olson.
Gabriella is a beautiful 3 year-old girl who on March 23, 2011 was diagnosed with a Wilm’s Tumor. It all started with several visits to Owatonna’s Urgent Care because of symptoms that were thought to be from a urinary tract infection. Every time the clinic ran her cultures they came back negative for a UTI. One morning Gabriella went to the bathroom and there was a very noticeable amount of blood in her urine. Her mother took her immediately to Urgent care only to find out a few days later that the culture came back negative again. Her mother knew there was something wrong and decided to follow up with her family doctor. Their family doctor saw that there was a consistent pattern of too much blood in her urine, even though it was only visible that one morning. He decided to do a blood test to check her kidney function and it came back normal. The doctor decided to wait a few weeks and do another urine sample to check for blood in Gabriella’s urine. If there was still too much blood in her urine, she would be referred to see a kidney specialist in Rochester.
Video Produced by Limberg Productions
