The Heart Behind Team Taylor

By Lauren Wong 

Coming back to the streets of Arizona on April 10, is the 10th annual Team Taylor Fun Run. The 5k race course goes through Arcadia in Phoenix and is perfect for all ages. Although it is a great, fun event to get together with others in your community, there’s so much more to the story of the Taylor Fun Run.

On April 10th, 2010, Taylor Paige Cosmas passed away at five months of age from SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). “Our passion started out with doing everything we could to find a cure. And while there definitely have been strides, we also realize how important it is to educate and create a community for families like ours,” Katie Cosmas, Founder and President of Three Butterflies SIDS Foundation/Team Taylor, says. “Being able to support them through this has been healing in its own way.”

In 2011 Katie and Mark, Taylor’s parents, decided to do something in Taylor’s name toremember her, but also to raise money for this heartbreaking disease. Team Taylor was formed in 2011 and was the largest team at Pat’s Run. In 2013 they created their own 5k. Over the years, they’ve helped raise over a million dollars for the cause.

“We really had no idea how big it would get. We knew we had an amazing community but no one could’ve imagined how much everyone would step up,” Cosmas says. Their goal for this year is to have over 1,200 runners participate and donate over $250,000 to SIDS Research. “As we move past our 10th year, we are looking to potentially pivot going into 2023 and are working on some exciting partnership opportunities.”

Katie explains that the most important thing to know about SIDS is that nobody is immune to it. We don’t know what causes it, or have a way to detect and prevent it, so all we can do right now is do everything in our power to keep our babies safe. Following safe sleep guidelines, educating family and caregivers, etc.

Dr. Richard Goldstein from Boston Children’s Hospital joined the team and families the Cosmas’s have met for a private lunch in 2019. It was a way for the families to get a lot of their questions answered and hear about the strides that have been made in terms of research.

Katie and Mark provide such an inspiration for the community through their strength and dedication. They’ve created an environment not only for education, but also healing. “In the days following Taylor‘s death we felt such guilt when we would laugh or smile and my husband said to me when we smiled, she smiled,” Cosmas says. “It became the slogan that we live by with her looking down on us.”

The support they’ve received has been tremendous. “We are beyond blessed with the best of friends, family and community. From the second we woke up every morning to the second we went to bed we were surrounded by them for months,” Cosmas says. “To this day they still keep Taylor‘s memory alive in their own ways which gives us such peace. We could never have done it without them.”

It’s hard to imagine how to look up after having something so awful happen to a loved one. The idea of healing can seem nearly impossible. “I would say be kind to yourself, that was one of the best things that someone said to me shortly after Taylor died. There is no right or wrong way to grieve, expectations that you should live up to, and there’s definitely no timeline,” Cosmas says. “Everyone grieves differently and don’t let anyone make you feel like your path should be anything other than what works for you.”

Team Taylor is beyond excited to bring back the race after being canceled due to Covid. Katie shares that in addition to supporting the families they’ve met along their journey, the most fulfilling thing has been knowing that “our children know that they have an angel sister, Taylor Paige, always looking over them.”

For more information and to sign up visit Team Taylor’s website.