High Country Trail Shoe
LET'S RUN IT FOR THE GIRLS
By Brent Terry
Over the course of a wide-ranging Zoom call, Annie McQueen, Lexie Boudreaux and Ryan DeWitt became my unwitting tour guides, leading me through a warm and brilliant Houston afternoon while I hunkered down inside on a minus-two degree Connecticut afternoon. The longtime friends made their separate ways through their familiar city, picking up kids from school, commuting from work, and running other sundry errands. With me as their virtual passenger, the trio pieced together a story that no one should have to tell. As they drove and we all talked, words like “bloom,” “blossom,” “spiderweb,” and “roots” kept creeping into the conversation. Later, as I was reflecting on their grace and good humor, those words from nature made me think what an organic thing community can be, how when nurtured like a garden, it can sustain us through the most terrible of storms.
In this case, the storm in question is horribly literal. Seven months - almost to the day - before we spoke, the Kerr County flood tore through Camp Mystic, an all-girls Christian summer camp, taking the lives of 25 young campers and two counselors. One of those who perished was Molly Claire DeWitt, Ryan’s nine year-old daughter. In Houston, the shockwaves moved through a close-knit web of families and communities that Ryan, Annie, and Lexie are part of. I asked Ryan to talk about the web, the interconnected series of Venn diagrams of people, about how the communities they are a part of had formed since Independence Day. I asked how everyone was helping everyone else cope with the events of the previous summer. I asked him about Heaven’s 27, the foundation created by parents of the 27 girls. I asked about Team 27, the brainchild of Lexie and Annie. And finally, I asked about the Molly Claire DeWitt Legacy Fund, which Ryan founded to raise funds for causes near and dear to Molly's heart.
“I am one of the Heaven's 27 dads,” DeWitt says, Heaven’s 27 being the foundation set up to fund individual and joint initiatives of the affected families. He chose his words carefully, and when they came, they came with gravity, eloquence and a quiet force. “I have known Lexie and Annie for some time - Lexie's daughter and my eldest daughter play basketball together, and Annie McQueen's daughter Georgia was great friends with Molly. Our community has been amazing - it started on July 4th with a band of parents that we never met, but are now incredibly close with. They are family. Would we rather have never met them? Of course - but our circumstances are what they are - and it has been so important to be able to grieve with this new family. We have shared hugs, laughs, tears and anger together, many times all in one sitting. Our extended community has shown up for us big time as well - our neighborhood of Wilchester, our fellow parishioners at St. John Vianney, our friends, and most importantly, our incredible family. Annie and Lexie are a huge part of that community and have helped lead the charge for Team 27. I suppose my wife Elizabeth, my daughter Annie, and I sit somewhere in the middle of this complicated Venn diagram.”
Adds Boudreaux, “We are in a community where our kids play sports together, go to school together, and go to church together. My children are friends with a couple of the siblings of the precious Heaven’s 27 girls.”
She and McQueen were clearly old friends. They finished one another’s thoughts, talked excitedly over one another, gesticulated on my screen as if sitting in the same car next to one another. The conversation between them flew like a flock of excitable birds, so fast, that it is quite possible I will misattribute a quote or two, as they spoke almost as one.
“It was, like, July 10th or 11th,” says Lexie/Annie, “and we were talking about the (Aramco) half-marathon. Suddenly, it came to me: Let’s run it for the girls.”
There is no way anyone could have seen how this heartfelt declaration between two friends would take root, send shoots and seed pods throughout the Houston running community, and then blossom into an organization that would see hundreds of runners participating in the events of Marathon weekend and hundreds of thousands of dollars raised by Team 27. DeWitt, McQueen and Boudreaux talk about the flowering of support like it happened by magic, which maybe it did, but it was McQueen’s gifts at the keyboard that made the magic happen.
“I’m a klutz with social media,” said Boudreaux, “but Annie’s the ultimate Instagrammer!”
“I love telling stories on social media,” said McQueen.
Thus, sites and pages were created, and almost overnight, the biggest running weekend on the Houston running calendar got significantly bigger.
The three friends’ own running backgrounds and histories with the Houston Chevron Marathon, Aramco Half-Marathon, 5K, and Family Fun Run events date back to their earliest years of running, says Boudreaux.
“I ran my first half in 2008 and decided to run the full upon crossing the finish line. I ran my first full in 2009 a week before my wedding day. I trained with Kenyan Way, a local training group led by Olympic runner Sean Wade. From then on, my knees told me halves were the way to go. I haven't missed one since! Even running a virtual half in 2021 as the marathon was cancelled because of Covid.”
McQueen tells a similar story, if one devoid of Olympian coaches and screaming knees.
“I am a leisure runner but I LOVE running. I am not out there training vigorously, or trying to set a PR. I do it for mental health, overall health, heart health, and great people-watching! My favorite spot to run, a place I have gone since I was in high school (I am now 43) is Memorial Park in Houston, a gorgeous 3-mile loop, serene in the middle of the busy city.
I have always loved the Chevron Houston Marathon race weekend. I have run the Aramco half marathon 5 times. So full of energy and positivity. There are many running clubs across Houston. I find my own motivation in a smaller circle, gym buddies, or "mom friends" - I love to run with a buddy or buddies.”
DeWitt began with even longer events, but scaled back due to family commitments.
“I started out in my early 30s doing Ironman triathlons,” he tells me. “I was inspired by a few friends who did one in the Woodlands - and walked to the parking lot telling my wife that I was so inspired I might just do one - I ended up doing five - and then turned to marathon running as my girls grew older and time to train was becoming limited. I enjoy running - it is really therapeutic for me. My last race with Molly on the sidelines was in Las Vegas, where I qualified for the Boston Marathon in 2026. It is one of my fondest memories passing her as she held a huge print out of my face, cheering with everything she had.”
Thus, it was only natural that after the flood the three would turn to running, not only as a way to process their grief, but to help others do the same.
“The answer was clear from the beginning,” says McQueen. Many Houstonians/Texans love the Chevron Houston race (many do the Aramco Houston Half), and a lot of people we know in the city do it year-after-year. So why not create a team with those people who all love the families of Heaven's 27? Gather together, rise up, and run (or walk, for some) for the girls. Everyone here is connected, like a small town. Even if we do not know each other personally, we are moved by the grief and connected through the creation of this team.”
“Being in this very tight-knit community, we have been blessed with wonderful friendships,” Boudreaux concurs. “Our village set out to raise our kids together. I am a firm believer that motion is medicine. Moving your body and setting and achieving goals makes people feel good.” She points to this year’s marathon weekend: “Whether you were a runner or walker on Team 27 or a fan standing in the cold cheering on strangers, it could not have been a better day. Our community really showed up.”
Says DeWitt: “I was signed up for the Chicago Marathon via a charity group when Molly passed this past summer. I emailed that group after her passing and let them know I just wasn't going to have it in me. A few weeks later I came to my senses and decided that not only would I run Chicago, but I would run the other 6 major marathons and raise money for Molly's foundation along the way. I am running Boston in April of this year and Berlin in September. The idea is to raise money for both Molly and Heaven's 27 - our new family. Our girls deserve it. Running has always been an outlet for me, but it has taken on a new meaning since July 4th. Annie and Lexie creating and driving the Team 27 bus was nothing short of remarkable. I am so proud to call them both friends - they care so deeply for all of these girls.”
The three friends leapt into action. DeWitt formed the Molly Claire DeWitt Legacy Fund. Boudreaux and McQueen began work on what would become Team 27. DeWitt connected the women with rabbit and Haku, the fundraising platform for endurance events. Something beautiful had taken root. Interest spread through the friends’ running and faith.
“By race day,” says Boudreaux, “we had 275 runners from all over the place. Fifty of those runners were family members of Heaven’s 27, including many of the girls’ parents and siblings.”
“Some of them had never run a 5k,” chimed in McQueen, “and now they are running a marathon!”
By the end of race weekend, Team 27 had blossomed and bore fruit to the tune of $350,000 raised for Heaven’s 27 Foundation and its initiatives. And that was only the beginning of the blossoming. Cheer groups formed and spread out along the course to spur Team 27 runners on. People came up to McQueen and Boudreaux, asking how they could get involved. Shattered individuals and families found new ways to heal. One mother told them that since the flood her only goal had been to find a way to get out of bed. Now she is training for a marathon. New Team 27 chapters have sprung up in Fort Worth, Austin, Nashville, and San Antonio, with the Houston duo sharing the template like gardeners with a budded branch. More chapters are surely on the way. From desolation a furious blossoming has begun. Perhaps McQueen sums it up best:
“Team 27 is a community - not just a running team. While some people are trying to set a PR, most are out there running for maybe the first time in their lives, surrounded by friends and supporters. Our goal is to share all about the Heaven's 27 Foundation, raise money for it, grow our team, and continue to carry on the mission of H27 for the 27 precious girls who still had so much life to live. If you read about each girl, they were just incredible. Their interests, hobbies, passions - a big overall theme was their empathy and care for others. It is remarkable and should never be forgotten. No parent should ever walk this road alone. Team 27 is one part of the community walking (or running) alongside them. We are a love that never stops running!”
That love is perhaps best exemplified in the love of a grandmother. Mary Anne DeWitt, Ryan’s mother and Molly’s grandmother, had “hung-up” her running shoes, but decided to travel from Denver and cover those 13.1 miles in honor of her grandchild. After the race she texted this: “Molly came to me the Thursday before the weekend and then again during the race, in an overwhelming way. She was saying in her joyful, excited way ‘Grandma, don’t you see how beautiful this is?’ All the relationships with family, friends, and strangers and how it is all connected with the past, present, and future- and then she made it very, very clear to me that she was beside each of us, individually and all at the same time, and will be forever, until we meet again."