During Spring Training that year, Little’s youngest son, Beckham, fell gravely ill with what was later diagnosed as a severe case of E. coli. Four years old at the time, Beckham was admitted to Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital in Tampa, where he stayed for a few months before being airlifted to Levine Children’s Hospital in Charlotte for another months-long stay. Beckham was on a ventilator for a time. He was in a lot of pain and couldn’t communicate well if at all. It was a time of immense strain for the Littles.
“We had a long time with that sense of helplessness as parents,” Will said. “You see your child on a ventilator, not able to communicate at all, and he was in that state for quite a while. And we really weren’t sure what the expected outcome was going to be. You sort of prepare for the worst, not knowing where it’s going to lead.”
About a month into the battle, when Beckham was released from the ventilator, UMPS CARE sent a Build-A-Bear to Beckham. At the time, Beckham wasn’t communicating much at all, still on a lot of medications and continuing to go through multiple surgeries. But when he received the bear?
“It immediately brought a smile to his face,” Will said. “That was one of the first moments where, without saying anything, you knew what he was wanting to say. You could truly understand the power of the program at that point.”
Will is happy to say that Beckham pulled through and is doing well now, although he still has health challenges. He’ll turn six years old soon and is trying to keep up with his older brothers. Through this entire journey, Will has been reminded over and over of the comfort that a few hours at a hospital – with Build-A-Bears in hand – can bring to a family going through what his family had just experienced.
“Before, all I could do as an umpire during these visits was just kind of imagine what the parents are going through and what a child might be going through,” Little said. “When it’s your own child and you see a smile or he’s able to finally give you a hug, that’s more powerful than any words can explain.”
Little shared his story to help bring awareness for the UMPS CARE Charities Holiday Hugs campaign, which is in full swing now as the organization seeks to raise funds to support their hospital program. Their goal is to raise $20,000, all of which will go to buying the Build-A-Bear animals, the outfits that are brought along with them, as well as the workbook activities. Additionally, the Arby’s Foundation has pledged to match up to $10,000 in donations.
“One of the cool things we do is giving the child a number of choices,” MLB umpire and UMPS CARE president D.J. Reyburn said. “They don’t get to make a lot of choices when they’re in the hospital. A lot of decisions are being made for them. So we usually have five or six different types of animals, and then we have different outfits for the animal. They get to pick the outfit, the animal, and we sit there with them and just take a couple of minutes to talk to them and hang out.”
Bears, of course, are always a good choice among the Build-A-Bear options. But Reyburn has noticed that the Build-A-Bear dinosaur has been a popular choice recently. And sometimes the animal popularity will coincide with the city they’re in; stuffed penguins go fast in Pittsburgh, for example, among young Pittsburgh Penguins fans.
“Every dollar will put another bear in a kid’s hands in a hospital,” Reyburn said. “What’s the first thing you do when you get a bear or any stuffed animal? You give it a hug. Especially these kids, they just squeeze them and cuddle with them. And that’s the whole point of the campaign – hugs for the holiday.”
The Build-A-Bear from UMPS CARE still sits in Beckham’s room and brings him joy. He knows when he received it and who it came from, and it’s a reminder to Will and Katie of the support they received during that time. It’s also a reminder to Will of the importance of the hospital visits he makes with his umpiring crew every summer.
“It’s hard to put into words, once you have to experience the other side of it,” he said. “It’ll change you, that’s for sure. … As fortunate as [Beckham] is, even with the battles health-wise, a lot of these children that we visit may not see that side of it. They continue to struggle and continue to have really tough times, and we really feel for them and the families. I’d just ask anyone who has a desire to bring love and joy to a child’s day to support our UMPS CARE charity. We’ve teamed up with Build-A-Bear for this purpose. We’re going to continue to grow it, and we couldn’t make it happen without all the individuals, corporations, foundations that support this particular event.”
