Strategies_Spring_2025

CUSTOMER PROFILE

Your Store as a Community Platform

A couple of years after Jace was born, Little decided she wanted to do her part to support other families experiencing pediatric strokes and planned a local 5K race to support the only prenatal stroke organization in the country, based in Texas. After three years of hosting her 5K, Little received a message from another mom in her area, Sara Mitchell, saying her daughter Sadie also had a stroke in the womb. That message eventually turned into a friendship and then their foundation, the Children’s Stroke Foundation of the Midwest. “We filed our paperwork in 2017, and since then, we’ve done one or two fundraisers a year and donated the money to a local children’s hospital,” Little says. “Our foundation also provides support to local families and connects with them to make sure nobody walks through this journey alone.” Currently, Little’s store has posters and informational flyers posted but in the future, she hopes to use her store’s platform and community support to bolster her foundation and help more families in the Midwest. “May is Pediatric Stroke Awareness Month, and I think my store would be great to help spread awareness and continue to support this cause,” Little says.

When Shiloh Little, owner of Moody’s Hardware, was pregnant with her son, Jace, who is now 12, he experienced multiple strokes in the womb. Jace then stopped moving, prompting an emergency induction over three weeks earlier than he was scheduled to be born. “When he was born, he would have these episodes where he would stop breathing and they couldn’t figure out what was causing these episodes,” Little says. “Now I know that is the No. 1 sign that there has been a stroke.” When Jace was three days old, he was transferred to another hospital in Kansas City, Missouri, to be treated. “I never knew you could have a stroke before you were born, that seems so crazy,” she says. “You think they’re all safe and cozy and they’re not. We were so fortunate that we found out early and were able to treat him.” Little says the part of his brain that didn’t experience the stroke compensated for the part of his brain that did. “When you see my son, most people who meet him have no idea,” Little says. “He definitely has some residual effects, like his left side is weaker, especially in his hand, but we started therapy so early that he’s come so far from when he was born.”

Stop by Booth # 111

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