Students 'Run for Ronda' in support of school secretary
Ronda McPhetridge (center) with husband Randy and daughter Ame on Senior Night at Moses Lake Christian Academy. Ronda, the elementary school secretary at the academy, was preparing to start a running program but recently suffered a stroke. Elementary school students are 'Running for Ronda' to show their support for their school's secretary as she recovers.
Ronda McPhetridge always has the best interests of the elementary kids in mind when she's at school.
McPhetridge, 42, is the grade school secretary at Moses Lake Christian Academy, and she's out there every morning when the kids arrive, helping students out of cars and greeting them. She's the go-to person for pretty much everything at the grade school. "She truly is such a pivotal part of the academy," said Stephanie Voigt, school employee.
She had decided to start a running program for the grade school, and was ready to tell the kids about it last week. But something happened, and for a while Mrs. McPhetridge won't be at school.
So now the grade school students will be running for Ronda.
McPhetridge was driving home Feb. 15 when something went wrong; "Mom couldn't control her (right) leg," said her daughter Ame. She managed to hit the brake and got to the side of the road with the help of her passenger, her daughter Tommie.
"She (Ronda) started to not be able to feel the right side of her body," Ame McPhetridge said. Ronda McPhetridge asked Tommie if her face looked was drooping, and when Tommie said it was, McPhetridge diagnosed the problem as a stroke. That required an emergency trip to Samaritan Healthcare, with Tommie driving. "Tommie is barely out of driver's ed," Ame McPhetridge said.
Ronda McPhetridge's roadside diagnosis was right. She did have a stroke, and was transported to Central Washington Hospital in Wenatchee.
The doctors do not exactly know why a 42-year-old woman had a stroke, Ame McPhetridge said. Doctors do know it was the result of a blood clot, but that's it. "The doctors said they may never know what happened. They may chalk it up to - just life," Ame said.
The news isn't all bad. The doctors have told the family, Ame said, that with therapy Ronda will make a full recovery. In fact, she's already started, learning to walk again, learning to write again, doing her homework. "That's what she calls it, homework," Ame McPhetridge said, the exercises given to her by the therapists.
She could be home as early as this week, Ame said, though her therapy will continue. "She's doing really, really well," she said.
The family has received an outpouring of support from friends, family and school staff. "That first night (Ronda was in the hospital) there were eight girls at our house, cleaning and making food," Ame said. They were friends of Ame and Tommie. Ronda's parents interrupted their vacation to return home faster, although their flight was postponed six times. People have signed up to bring food and help around the house while the family is traveling back and forth to Wenatchee.
Ronda will be away from school for a while. But her elementary school exercise program is going ahead as planned. It's a show of support for Mrs. McPhetridge as she recovers.
"We named it run for Ronda because she was so excited," Voigt said of the newly formed program.
Ame McPhetridge explained the program to the elementary students, and explained the goal.
"What we're trying to do is run the length from Moses Lake to Disney World," she said - actually the equivalent distance, not the actual trip. (Some of the first and second graders got the idea they might really run to Florida, Ame said.) That's 2,912 miles, she said.
School officials plan to keep the running program running next year, too, and want to have a walkathon sometime during that period, Voigt said.
And Ronda wants to be at the finish line.cheering them on.
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