Liam Dugan was born June 13 with spina bifida, a birth defect involving the formation of his spine. On Sunday, Tiger Stadium in Hollidaysburg was crowded with community members who came out to walk “Laps for Liam.”

When she was 20 weeks pregnant, Ashlyn Dugan, Liam’s mother, found out that Liam had a cyst on his spine. After visiting a specialist in Johnstown, Ashlyn and her husband, Cody, were told that Liam had what was believed to be the most severe type of spina bifida, and they were advised to consider terminating the pregnancy. From there, they were referred to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

Despite the original evaluation, Liam had what turned out to be a less severe case of spina bifida that would not require surgery until after birth.

When he was 1 day old, Liam underwent his first surgery. A neurosurgeon removed the cyst, leaving a small scar on his lower back. A few weeks later, he had a second surgery to place a shunt in his head to control the fluid around his brain.

Baby Liam underwent his first surgery when he was just 1 day old.

Now, at 2 months, Ashlyn says that Liam is doing very well and has been a blessing to their family.

“Having him has affected our lives for the good,” Ashlyn said. “We are so blessed that he was chosen to be our child. It’s really hard for a parent when you hear your kid has a disability, but he really is a miracle.”

While the Dugans have felt the love and support of their friends and family throughout their journey thus far, there is no doubt that they felt it Sunday.

More than 200 people attended the 5K walk, where nearly $5,000 was raised through donations, the purchase of T-shirts, basket raffles, door prizes and a 50/50 drawing.

Pizza was donated by Best Way Pizza of Hollidaysburg, Cargill employees handed out drinks and ice cream to the attendees, and all of the baskets and prizes were donated by community members and businesses.

The event was proposed by Brent Altmanshofer and Lisa Creamer, who were looking for a way to help Nicole Estep, Liam’s grandmother and the owner of Point of Fitness, after she was struck by a car while riding her bicycle a few weeks before Liam was born.

“Nicole has done so much for the community. She does so many good things for so many people, that we thought, why don’t we get a group of people together — basically it was supposed to be the ‘fitfam’ from Point of Fitness — for an evening walk around the community,” Altmanshofer said. “Then it just went from there.”

The idea snowballed into a community-wide fundraiser.

“The main goal was to bring awareness to spina bifida and to just alleviate some of the pressure of the medical bills and driving back and forth to Philadelphia, and the gas, meals, that kind of thing,” Creamer said.

Despite being one of the most common birth defects in the United States, many people are unaware of spina bifida, and many women choose to terminate their pregnancies.

“A lot of women decide to terminate their pregnancies, so if we can get more women to change their view that these kids are born and they can have surgery and they’ll be well-adapted — they may have some struggles, but they’re normal kids, and if we can get people to change their views on spina bifida, then I think that would be one of our major goals,” Estep said.

The Dugans decided to take the fundraising efforts one step further and donate some of the money raised to Ronald McDonald House Charities. The charity provides housing and resources for families who have to travel for medical needs. The Dugans had to travel back and forth to Philadelphia when Liam was born.

“Ronald McDonald House meant a lot to us because we had no family down there, no friends, we were living out of a backpack and had nowhere to stay. It’s just really awesome that they provide that for everybody,” Ashlyn said.

Laps for Liam not only raised money for the Dugans and Ronald McDonald House, but it also brought the community together in a positive light.

“I think that through adversity, sometimes there is a bright light that comes from that adversity,” Estep said. “With Liam having this issue when he was born, everyone has reached out to Ashlyn and us and wanted to help out. This was a great event for everybody to get to see Liam and see that he is a normal, thriving baby, and it was a great thing for everybody to get together and do something to help.”

The Dugans hope that Laps for Liam will become an annual event to continue raising awareness each year.