Eighth Annual Sullivan County ATV Poker Run

Sullivan County ATV charity Poker Run to benefit two local kids

By RICHARD A. ROSS

BETHEL, NY — In a fitting end to a busy summer, the Sullivan County ATV Association will hold its eighth annual Poker Run on September 9.

The event, which begins at 7:00 a.m. on Route 17B across from Russell Farms, affords ATV riders a choice of either a 30- or 50- mile course and a chance to win prizes, including a 2006 Yamaha Bruin 4x4.

More importantly, the event, brought to the county by the organization’s founder Michael Cooper and Jay Meddaugh, Jr., will benefit two children with significant medical issues.

Each year, the Poker Run has brought in thousands of dollars for children in need. Last year, the event raised $22,000 dollars for Alec Gildersleeve of White Sulphur Springs and Bryce Rogerson of Neversink (visit riverreporter.com 9/15/05 and click on columns to read about their story).

This year’s recipients are six-year-old Brianna Fae Houghtaling of Parksville, and seven-month-old Daniel Omogbai of Rock Hill.

Brianna was born three months prematurely at the Albany Medical Center to parents Melissa and Mitchell Houghtaling. She spent the first four-and-a-half months of her life there, and had to have a shunt installed to drain fluid from her brain. She was brought back to life three times the day she was born.

When she came home, she was on oxygen, a puffbox machine to regulate the level of oxygen in her blood and a sleep apnea machine. She also had a tube in her stomach to receive food.

As Melissa recounts it, “Her second Christmas was spent in the hospital in Westchester because she contracted Respiratory Syncytial Virus and almost died. It was a miracle she pulled through and came home two weeks later. Brianna is a very happy girl for all she’s been through. She is always smiling and saying hi to everyone she sees.”

Brianna is about to start kindergarten in Liberty Elementary School where she will receive physical, occupational and speech therapy. Her parents are trying to raise money to get a place of their own. Melissa still runs back and forth to Albany with Brianna for ongoing medical care.

Daniel Omagbai was born five months prematurely and also had to stay at the Albany Medical Center. His mother Jennifer, a corrections officer at Beacon Correctional Facility, had previously left her job at Bedford Hills Correctional Facility to have brain surgery. Her husband Tim is a registered nurse who commutes daily to Bronx Lebanon Hospital. The couple moved to Sullivan County from Brooklyn.

Daniel’s most salient problem has been with his breathing. Weighing only one pound, three ounces at birth, Daniel’s lungs were ill equipped for breathing on his own. He was in an incubator for three months. He suffers from pulmonary hypertension. Doctors hope someday he will have better breathing but don’t rule out the possibility that he may suffer from asthma. Daniel takes a host of medications, including a diuretic, which has slowed his ability to gain weight. Daniel gets physical therapy, has vision issues from being born prematurely and currently has a pair of hernias. Daniel is doing well and is currently eight pounds, seven ounces.

Both sets of parents are loving and attentive, but the cost of caring for their children is daunting.

That’s where this event comes into play. Since its inception in 1990, the event draws ATV enthusiasts from across the Northeast.

On September 3, group leaders and trail guides including Cooper, Poli, Ellis Garcia and others set out in the drizzling rain to mark the trails and make sure that everything is in order for the anticipated 500 riders.

Cooper, who first got the idea for the event after attending something similar in Old Forge, thought that a fundraiser of this type would benefit kids in Sullivan County. He hopes to ride in this year’s event even though he is still suffering from compressed discs suffered in a well-publicized automobile accident that occurred on Route 17B on July 27, 2005. That mishap resulted in the deaths of five children from a dance camp in a car driven by a counselor who did not possess a valid driver’s license. Cooper was working for the Sullivan County Department of Public Works and was driving the truck that the car smashed into.

Cooper and other Sullivan County ATV Association members are glad to be able to do something that affirms the life of children.

For more information call Tony Poli at 845/794-6940.