Bryce & Tanner Blank Selected South Dakota's 2005 Children's Miracle Network Champions

RAPID CITY, SD - Twin brothers Bryce and Tanner Blank, 8, of Rapid City, have been selected as South Dakota's 2005 Children's Miracle Network (CMN) Champions. As such, this next spring they will travel to Washington, D.C., and Orlando, Fla., as ambassadors for the CMN Champions Across America IOF Foresters program.

Champions Across America is designed to increase awareness of CMN hospitals, increase participation in the annual fundraising campaign, and celebrate the specialized health care and research fundraising supports. One child is selected to represent each state in the U.S; South Dakota is an exception with the selection of twins this year. The champions will visit the White House and participate in the taping of the national CMN Celebration Broadcast in Florida in March of 2005.

Bryce and Tanner Blank are the children of Mike and Trish Blank. The twins were born at Rapid City Regional Hospital at 27 weeks gestation - 13 weeks premature. Bryce weighed 3 pounds, 2 ounces, and, Tanner, 1 pound, 15 ounces. The boys also had twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome, which means one twin received more of the nutrients needed than the other while in-utero. The twins shared one placenta, but the umbilical cord did not split evenly, restricting the nutrients to one twin and supplying more to the other. Tanner had two hernia surgeries while in Regional Hospital's Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) and a spot on Bryce's brain indicated more problems for him.

Bryce and Tanner received care in the NICU, and were helped with equipment purchased by CMN, for three months. In their fragile state, the twins were both placed in open warmers. They were on respirators, hooked to heart and lung monitors, blood pressure monitors, pulse oximeters and many other needed condition monitors. The boys had many ups and downs - one especially scary when a brain bleed, which could have had tragic consequences, was found in Bryce. The spot went away, but Bryce was not able to be removed from the respirator at the same time as Tanner. Bryce was the larger twin, but he could not breathe on his own. The boys could not eat from a bottle for a long time, as they were too weak to work so hard as to eat from a bottle.

Angie Kliewer, Rapid City Regional Hospital Fundraising Director, congratulates Bryce and Tanner for being named South Dakota's CMN Champions.

"Bryce and Tanner went through so much as infants. To look at them today, you would never know how truly fragile they were at their birth and the weeks that followed," Kliewer said. "I think what makes them really stand out is that they are just so normal, so outgoing and tough little boys. They laugh and cry and fight and play...they are just good kids."

Kliewer said Tanner is a "fighter." "You could tell in the hospital that he was a 'go-getter,'" she said. Tanner is strong willed and has a heart of gold. He plays soccer, but loves baseball. He is a Tiger Scout and ready to advance to the next level. Riding bikes and swimming are favorites, and he enjoys lots of outdoor adventures. Kliewer describes Bryce as more laid back - he contemplates and thinks about lots of things. He is kind and considerate to people and is conscientious. Bryce loves soccer and scouting as well. Crafts and working in Dad's workshop is a favorite of both.

Wanting to give back to the organization they believe has done so much for their sons' well being, the Blank family volunteers its time at almost every CMN fundraising event. This last year, they were the top duck selling team for the Great Black Hills Duck Race.

According to Trish, her sons developed their entrepreneurial skills and furthered their philanthropic mindset one day this last summer. "They decided to take their 'rummage' door to door in the neighborhood to make money to buy a movie camera, and, to give some to the hospital because the kids need the money," she said.

Rapid City Regional Hospital salutes Bryce and Tanner Blank as South Dakota's 2005 CMN Champions.

"We thank the boys and their family for all of their efforts to increase awareness of CMN and hospitals helping kids," Kliewer said.

For more information about CMN, or about how your donation to CMN can help ill and injured children in this region like Tanner and Bryce Blank, call CMN at (605) 719-1305.