By merely looking at 19-month-old Halle Schmalz, it wouldn’t be immediately obvious that she was born with a complex heart defect and has already had two surgeries.

“You want tickles? You want tickles?” Gary Schmalz said to his daughter as she giggled and kicked on their living room sofa. “Now she’s just showing off.”

For the Schmalz family, and many others like them, the ISU Dance Marathon is a blessing.

Iowa State’s Dance Marathon helps 75 families of area children with life-threatening diseases, both monetarily and by building support systems, Megan Guetzko, co-director of family recruitment, said.

At 8 a.m. Saturday, ISU students will participate in the eighth annual Dance Marathon in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union. All of the money raised goes to the Children’s Miracle Network and the Children’s Hospital of Iowa in Iowa City. More than $500,000 has been raised through the years by Iowa State’s Dance Marathon, Guetzko said.

The Children’s Miracle Network has connected the ISU Dance Marathon chapter with several new families; there are 12 new families participating this year, and, of the 75 families who participate with the organization at Iowa State, 45 will be attending the event on Saturday, she said.

“Obviously, the families are involved in Dance Marathon because the organization is raising money for their families and families in similar situations, but Dance Marathon also provides them with a support system through the other families,” Guetzko said.

The Schmalz family first got involved with Dance Marathon a year and a half ago after hearing about the event through a friend.

“We were looking for a connection of people in similar circumstances,” said Cristen Schmalz, Halle’s mother. “We really feel blessed to have Dance Marathon because it’s fun, family times.”

Halle was born with eight different heart conditions. Among other complications, she was born with holes in her heart, which was upside down, on the opposite side of her body and pumping ineffectively.

Gary said a doctor showed him and his wife a book with 3,000 pages of heart conditions and Halle’s combination of heart disorders was not even in the book. One out of 125 babies is born with a heart condition and 1 percent of those children have a hole in their heart. Halle’s complex heart defect is a very uncommon heart condition, he said.

“One doctor said, ‘We don’t cure heart defects, we manage them,'” Gary said.

Halle’s first surgery was at the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics when she was four days old. Cristen said during this surgery the doctors put a shunt, an object that provides a different path for blood to flow, in Halle’s heart. This surgery was to address her pulmonary stenosis, a disorder that made her pulmonary valve obsolete. The surgery was able to give Halle partially oxygenated blood. She was receiving 75 percent oxygenated blood after the surgery. A normal person receives around 98 percent, she said.

Gary said it became very real when he had to sign a consent form. The doctors read off a list of what-ifs.

“It puts life into perspective,” he said.

Halle’s second surgery was 15 months later at the University of Michigan’s CS Mott Children’s Hospital in Ann Arbor, Mich., and was performed by one of the top three heart surgeons in the world, Dr. Edward Bove.

Gary said Halle’s left ventricle was pumping to her lungs and her right ventricle was pumping to her body. The right ventricle is not strong enough to pump to the entire body for a lifetime. During this surgery, surgeons rerouted the flow of Halle’s heart and replaced her arteries with fake conduits.

Halle will have a minimum of two more surgeries; since the tubes do not grow as she does, surgeons have to replace her tubes within the next two years and again when she’s in her teens, Cristen said.

“The doctors built new roads and now they’ll have to pave them,” she said.

Halle is developing rather well, running around like a child who has no health problems. The doctors are not sure if her condition will affect her physical activity later in life, Cristen said.

Halle will be one of 250 family members attending Saturday’s Dance Marathon on behalf of local families, in addition to several hundred ISU students, all of whom benefit from the event in some way.

“The families are amazing motivators,” Guetzko said. “When you see the families your money is going to, it is a wonderful feeling.”

The Schmalz family is no exception.

“They have been a really motivating family, … because they try to know about the committee members instead of assuming the committee members only want to know about them,” Guetzko said.

Gary said Dance Marathon creates a fun atmosphere for families going through hard times.

“There are some families there who aren’t sure their child is going to go to another Dance Marathon event,” Gary said.

Fortunately, Halle will be attending the 2005 Dance Marathon.