That’s the amount Heath Bane raised for the Hempstead and Nevada County chapter of The Call, a non-profit that assists foster families with all sorts of needs as they take care of children whose own families are not able to. It also finds families who wish to host foster children and trains them.
Bane raised these funds by asking local businesses and persons to pledge funds based on the number of miles he would run Saturday morning in Fair Park.
As it turns out, he ran the 14 miles he set out to, picking that number because it’s his age.
Bane spoke to the Kiwanis Club Tuesday about his campaign to help The Call, an organization he became aware of, as he explained to the Kiwanis Club Tuesday, when he heard foster parent Gina Perkins speak about the needs of children who for various reasons have been removed from the homes they were born into.
“I started to feel bad for those kids, and I was like, ‘Well, what's a way I can help the call?’ So I was thinking all these different things I could do. But I know Jose Alvarez; he runs a lot. So I was like, ‘Well, I could run for a fundraiser.’ And then, since I just turned 14, that's kind of the reason that number 14 came up,” Heath explained.
He already lived with an older sister Haley, whose nonprofit baking company H.R. Sweets has raised over $10,000 for church missions. Seeing her be awarded the 2025 Young Leadership Award at this year’s Hope-Hempstead Chamber of Commerce Banquet inspired him to think of what cause he could serve.
Then followed many contacts with donors and much practice long-distance running. Thirteen businesses pledged. With a neighbor running alongside, he found he could make some serious miles but by the time of Saturday’s start, he had never run 14 before.
“I would train, about three, four days a week. I wouldn't run too far, maybe like three to five miles in those days. But then there's a few hard days. With my neighbor, I ran ten miles in an hour, 45 [minutes] and so we would just try and build up to it.”
But with the support of several friends, including Alvarez, Bane pushed through and ran the 14 miles in two hours and 53 minutes. A Kiwanian asked whether it was hard to attain that distance.
“About the twelth mile, I started having a lot of cramps, but the last mile that started to kind of go away,” Bane said.
Bane said he hopes to keep up the running habit in the fall as a member of the Garrett Memorial Christian School’s Cross-country team.
Asked what running shoes he preferred, Bane said the church had provided him with some from the Brooks brand, but he also likes Hoka.
The guest presentation at the meeting began with The Call Executive Director Holli Boyett providing a summary of what The Call is and what it does. The nonprofit, which receives no state or federal funding, is one of many The Call organizations in the state that hopes to make headway in providing safe, stable homes for children who fall into the foster care system.
Boyett displayed a container of layered colored beads in which about 3/4 of them were red and the rest blue. “The red beads represent the number of children in foster care in Arkansas. There's about 3,500. The blue beads represent the number of open foster homes in our state, and there's about 1,300. So you can see that there's many more children than there are open homes to provide safe spaces for them. So that's why the call in Hempstead and Nevada County works to recruit, train and support local foster families,” Boyett said.
She called recent times for the nonprofit, “an incredible couple of years,” when it found its downtown headquarters inside the Christian Charitable Medical Clinic building. “This allows us to have a monthly volunteer leadership meeting, because it takes a lot of people, takes a lot of different small pieces, to make the work of The Call work,” Boyett said.
Funds raised during a campaign last year helped purchase a building in which to place The Call Mall, where foster parents could shop for no cost for donated clothes, equipment and even toys for the children they might find themselves suddenly taking in.
“So just last week, I was able to meet one of our foster parents who was taking an eight-month -old little boy into care, and for free, I was able to give her a bouncer, some baby food, some formula, some bottles, some diapers, some wipes, some get-started supplies so that she could say yes. It makes it a little bit easier to taking care of this child. We also support our families, just on an ongoing basis, with things like blessing basket and helping them with tangible needs.”
Boyett credited Dixie Coffee for making her aware of The Call and drawing her to joining the organization. The Call’s purpose in speaking for foster families and for children and as a raiser of awareness also appealed to Boyett. “The call is such an advocate for children and families impacted by foster care right here at home as well as across our state. We love being the voice and holding those events and holding online information meetings and going to speaking engagements and getting the word out, beating the drum for children and families,” she said.
Among its proudest achievements for the past year, Boyett said, has been The Call's recruitment of new households to host children. "We trained 21 new families who will go on to provide safe, loving homes for dozens or hundreds of children in foster care right here in Arkansas. All of the things that we are able to accomplish, any impact that the call has had on the community--it's because of volunteers."
