With only a rock, Washington woman’s message spreads around the world
Phil Rigney, fourth from right, and Darren Finnegan, second from right, took Rylee’s rock to the set of the TV show “Vikings” in Wicklow, Ireland.
Mark Wilson, who is sponsored by Mad Viking Beard Co., had the rock sent to Taumarunui, New Zealand, where he lives.
Pictured is Rylee Baker, who was born with a congenital heart defect.
A fundraiser was held for Rylee earlier this month at the Cadillac Ranch in Robinson Township.
Shana Hall is shown on the day she discovered Rylee’s rock.
It was World Heart Day, fittingly enough, when Shana Hall discovered a painted rock outside Children’s Hospital in Pittsburgh, and she was just the kind of person Jeri Vitteck was hoping would find it.
Just a couple of months earlier, on July 7, 2017, Rylee Baker, Vitteck’s daughter, was born. During her pregnancy, Vitteck, of Washington, learned that Rylee would be born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a congenital heart defect (CHD). With the left side of Rylee’s heart underdeveloped, extra duties were passed to the right side, blocking the flow of blood from the lungs.
To survive, Rylee was required to have the first of a three-part surgery when she was just 6 days old. While Vitteck was at the hospital, her other children began painting “kindness rocks.”
Kindness rocks are rocks that people paint and hide, in the hope someone else will find. The finder is expected to share a picture on social media and then re-hide the rock for another person to locate.
“I thought, ‘Maybe I’ll paint a couple rocks to get my mind off of things.’ I brought some rocks home from the hospital one day,” Vitteck said.
Vitteck took two rocks to Children’s Hospital on Sept. 29, 2017, and Rylee’s father, Jonathan Baker, hid the rocks outside.
Vitteck painted “Save the Beat” on both rocks,” and they directed whomever found them to #RyleesJourney, a Facebook page she made to share the stories of Rylee and other children born with CHD.
“I made them because I was trying to think, what’s a way I could spread awareness?” Vitteck said. “I wonder if I put this rock out if somebody is going to understand, or ask questions to try to help. Because people don’t know.”
Hall, of Petrolia, Pa., was there that day on behalf of her business, Mad Viking Beard Co., for a telethon to raise money for the hospital. She is a co-owner along with her husband, Jason Hall, and Amanda and Jason Sealand. She found one of Vitteck’s rocks.
“I just picked it up and there was an inscription on the back to go to a page on Facebook. I started talking to Jeri about it,” Hall said.
Vitteck and Hall became close friends, and Hall was determined to help share Rylee’s story.
Her business, which sells products for facial hair care, such as beard oil and mustache wax, provided the perfect opportunity to do so.
Hall could have simply re-hidden the rock and hoped someone else would take the same interest, but she did not want to take that chance.
“I got extremely emotionally attached. I didn’t want to go put the rock down in some random park. The main thing was to get the rock out there and get more awareness,” Hall said.
She enlisted the help of Vikings – rather, people who play them on TV.
Through work, Hall had met Phil Rigney and Darren Finnegan, actors on the History Channel show, “Vikings.” Hall’s business sponsors Rigney and Finnegan. They had requested to take the rock to the set of the TV show in their native Ireland.
Separate from the business, Hall also helped start Mad Viking Beard and Mustache Club. The club has chapters around the world, and members request the rock from Hall, who will ship it to them. Rylee’s rock has been as far as New Zealand.
Vitteck made Hall an administrator on the Facebook page, where she shares pictures of the rock’s travels. Wherever the rock goes, it always returns to Hall, who will take it with her to different events to share Rylee’s story.
“A lot of strangers message me,” Vitteck said. “They went from being strangers to being family. They don’t just support Rylee, but they support all the kids that I share. If I share another warrior on the page, they will go to that warrior’s page and leave prayers for that child.”
With Hall’s help, Vitteck has been able to spread awareness about CHD in a way she never thought possible.
“I thought I had to do something major to spread awareness, but I took a little rock, and in a big way it’s made a huge impact,” Vitteck said.
Part of the message that Vitteck hopes to share is that CHD can easily go undetected. If Rylee’s condition had not been caught during pregnancy, she likely would not have lived long.
Rylee is now 2, and Vitteck jokingly tells others that she is rotten, like any typical toddler. Vitteck also has three other children – Kaiydenze, 13, Tyler, 12, and Tavian, 9. Rylee also has one other brother, Gaige, who is 6.
For Hall, seeing Vitteck raise Rylee along with her other children has been an inspiration.
“I’m a mom. I have a little girl. I couldn’t imagine the strength and courage for Jeri to do this and take care of a child that has so many needs,” Hall said. “It’s really hard to see a child go through all the surgeries, and still be so strong to just pull through it.”
Rylee was on life support this past September following complications with the third part of her surgery. Doctors had to perform emergency open heart surgery to remove a blockage and reverse the surgery. Rather than risk doing the surgery again, Rylee was placed on a waiting list for a transplant.
Vitteck said the doctors were not confident that Rylee would be able to come off life support.
“I bent down and I told her … ‘Rylee, you got this. Mommy is going to be waiting for you when you get done. You’re going to be OK, and we’re going home,'” Vitteck said.
Rylee made it home, and was also able to make it to a fundraiser at the Cadillac Ranch in Robinson Township on Feb. 2, where members of the Mad Viking Beard and Mustache Club were able to meet her for the first time.
There, Vitteck asked Hall and her husband to be Rylee’s “Viking godparents.”
“So she has an extra set of godparents. No warrior is complete without Viking parents,” Vitteck said.
The Halls accepted the offer.
“I’ve got to actually see Rylee get better, and all these major milestones,” Hall said. “At the event, I was able to hold Rylee for the very first time. It was really emotional.”