Miles for Malcolm 5K honors ‘joyful’ toddler

Second annual runwalk fundraiser seeks to raise awareness for SUDC

By JOe EMANsKi

Malcolm Wildszewski was an active, robust two-year-old on Mother’s Day 2020 when he came down with a low-grade fever. Yes, it was the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, but this seemed to his parents, Kim and Tara, like nothing more than a mild cold.

By the next morning, though, they knew that something was wrong. Usually strong and energetic, Malcolm could not even stand up. They took him to the emergency department at the hospital, where later that day, he seized unexpectedly. A day later, he was gone.

Malcolm’s death is among thousands each year that falls into the category of Sudden Unexplained Death in Childhood, or SUDC. In such cases, children 12 months of age or older die suddenly in ways that remain unexplained even after a thorough investigation of possible causes.

wasn’t like we missed something. It was that he just was here and then he wasn’t.”

Losing a young child unexpectedly would be a terrible thing under any circumstances. But Kim and Tara also experienced this loss during the first months of the pandemic, when holding a memorial service for loved ones was out of the question.

“That was otherworldly, and unbelievably awful,” Kim says. “We couldn’t be hugged. There was no physicality to our grief.”

Tara and Kim knew that they wanted to do something both to honor Malcolm and to bring greater awareness to SUDC. Last spring, they organized the first ever Miles for Malcolm Walk/ Run, raising more than $20,000 to benefit SUDC.

how far would you go if they were sick?

On Saturday, April 29, they will host the second annual Miles for Malcolm event, and like last year it will take place at the Pennington Montessori School, 4 Tree Farm Road in Hopewell, where Malcolm was once an attendee.