A year ago, Ma''rwa Ahteemi was living with her large family in rural northern Iraq and had no intention of becoming a world traveler. But in recent weeks, she has ridden roller coasters at Six Flags America in Largo, shopped at Tysons Corner mall, visited the National Zoo and yesterday served as grand marshal for the annual May Day 5K charity run in Alexandria.
From a wheelchair.
Ma''rwa, 13, is paralyzed from the waist down after being injured when an errant mortar shell struck her family''s home in Salah ad Din in November. Five family members, including her stepmother, were killed, and 12 others were severely injured.
But a remarkable collaboration between American soldiers and doctors in Iraq and spinal cord specialists in the United States brought Ma''rwa to the National Center for Children''s Rehabilitation in Washington in February for treatment. And when former Alexandria police officer Kris Gulden, also partially paralyzed, heard about Ma''rwa, she invited the young Iraqi and her family to launch the 500 runners who annually trek down Eisenhower Avenue to raise money for Gulden and spinal cord injury research.
Organizers hoped to net more than $10,000 from participants in the three-mile run, which started at Cameron Run Regional Park. More than $1,000 was earmarked for Ma''rwa, who will return to Iraq this month, and $2,500 will be donated to the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation.
Gulden said she invited Ma''rwa to the race with mixed emotions -- "sadness that a child has lost so much; disgust at the violent and senseless way Ma''rwa acquired her spinal cord injury; satisfaction in being able to help; and more than anything, absolute conviction that it is the right thing to do."
Marcie Roth, executive director of the National Spinal Cord Injury Association and Ma''rwa''s escort yesterday, said the girl and her family are grateful for the help, and they hope other severely injured Iraqis will receive American aid.
The annual race was created to benefit Gulden, 37, a former triathlete and bicycle patrol officer who was training for a four-day charity bike ride in 1998 when she was struck by a motorist on the Fairfax County Parkway. She now works at an outdoors sporting goods store and still undergoes strenuous -- and expensive -- therapy in hope of regaining some use of her legs. High-tech biofeedback has shown that some connections between her brain and her legs have been reestablished, Gulden said.
"I know that we''re getting closer every day," Gulden told the runners after the race, "to the time when I don''t need this wheelchair anymore."
Ma''rwa was given a loud whistle to start the race and she said, through an interpreter, that was her favorite part of the day. She said when she first realized she was badly hurt, "I expected somebody might help me," perhaps not realizing how lucky she was.
Runners from ages 8 to 84 participated in the run, many stopping to offer a kind word to Ma''rwa after the finish line.
"I like to run. It''s a good cause," Nicholas Wagner, 8, of Alexandria said as he waited for his mother, Joyce, to finish.
Representatives of several law enforcement agencies turned out, but none more obvious than the 45 white T-shirted recruits from the Fairfax County Criminal Justice Academy, who ran in formation and chanted throughout their run.
"We just can''t think of a better way for young people that are new to this line of work to understand the camaraderie and brotherhood of law enforcement," said Officer Virginia Ranck, one of the recruits'' supervisors.
Mary Grimsley, 84, of Annandale, said she had hoped to complete her first-ever race in under 45 minutes, but she came up a few minutes short. Next time, she said, "I''ll be able to prepare a little more. I didn''t prepare much this time, because of the rain. I''ve got to be able to do it in 45 minutes."