Diagnosed in utero with a congenital diaphragmatic hernia, Emma Keene had to be connected to a heart and lung bypass system right after birth. She would spend her next four months at Children's having five surgeries to repair the hole in her diaphragm and all the problems it caused. "As far as the staff at Children's Hospital, I cannot say enough about how wonderful they all were," says Bill Keene, her father. "They really did become our second family."

Five years later Emma's doing well in pre-school and otherwise preoccupied with Disney princesses, playing hairdresser and managing her pretend restaurant at the Keene's home in Brockton, Mass. Because of her traumatic first few months, she has cerebral palsy, but this year took her first independent steps. "There's nothing wrong with her little mind," says her mother, Michelle. "She's here with us because she's a fighter, and because of Children's, of course."

To honor Emma and thank Children's, every year her family joins the hospital's annual pledge walk along the Charles River. Team Emma had 25 members its first year, including aunts, uncles and cousins, all four of Emma's grandparents, her godmother and several family friends. But then family members invited friends and friends recruited families and now they're 52 strong and it's getting harder to fundraise in Winchester, Mass., where most of them live, because it seems like everyone's already on the team. "It's the 6 degrees of separation thing," Michelle explains. "Almost anyone you talk to has a kid who's been a patient at Children's or knows someone who does. We're all just so grateful it's so close by." The Keene's good fortune hit home again two years ago when Brett, Emma's little brother, was born with serious medical problems of his own and successfully treated at Children's.

They do most of their fundraising by email and phone, but almost every store in Winchester has a Team Emma collection bank and every year Michelle's two brothers set up a three-foot-tall plastic replica of a Rolling Rock beer bottle in the Woburn package store where they work. It has Emma and Brett's pictures and stories on the front and usually brings in a few hundred bucks. The kids' two grandfathers are team stars, both doing most of their fundraising at work. Bob Pacheco, Michelle's dad, is an Assistant Clerk Magistrate at the courthouse in Cambridge, Mass. "Bob knows a lot of lawyers and judges, so every year when the walk comes around he just tells them 'It's time!" and they pay up," says Bob's wife, Jean, with a laugh.

In four years, Team Emma has raised $82,000 for Children's. They hope to reach $100,000 this year. With the event only a month away, Emma's Uncle Mark is organizing a charity golf tournament to make sure they make it. Jean Pacheco, the team captain, is sure they will. "We've got plenty of time," she says. "If you're committed to something, you make the time."

This story published May, 2007.

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