Miles for Smiles: Hough family running 5Ks in 50 states in 50 days

HOUSTON - An Air Force pilot and his family from North Carolina wrapped up their run in Houston just a few days ago, as they run miles for smiles.

Talk about a healthy way to get exercise plus spend quality time with family. Their goal that they are so close to completing: running a 5K in all 50 states within 50 days. The Hough family is doing that now, on a mission to raise awareness and funds to help children with a cleft palate. 

The Houghs have been hitting the road for a new state every single day the past six weeks, fueled by passion to help children with a cleft lip and palate. The condition affects 1 in 700 babies around the world. If left untreated, the condition can make it tough to speak, eat, and breathe. They know all about it, because their 17-year-old daughter, Campbell, was born with a cleft.

"Having a baby with a cleft, trying to feed her. She was not getting the nourishment and I had lactation consultants and all these professionals at my hand within reach, and a lot of these families around the world do not have that. And Smile Train will provide that for them, which is really why we're doing this," says Campbell's mother Kelly Hough.

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Campbell had access to medical care, but that's not the case for many families dealing with this condition. That's why they're running to raise funds and awareness for the non-profit "The Smile Train," working with them almost 18 years, since Campbell was born. The non-profit offers free corrective surgery for children with a gap in their lip or roof of their mouth. It happens when tissue doesn't join together before they're born.

"They like to go out and provide the training and the resources to local professionals to provide care to their own communities, and so it's a sustainable model," says the dad of the family, Jeremy Hough.

"A smile is universal language. It's like part of social interaction. It's part of being happy and if you can't smile, it just makes it really hard to communicate with people and just exist. So, I think that's why it's really important to give these people the opportunity to be able to smile and live a happy and healthy life," says a smiling Campbell.

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She and her dad came up with this idea while on a mission trip in Colombia for Smile Train. They want it to be challenging, like what kids go through. The girls switched to online school to run "50 strong 4 cleft", all while bringing communities together, one step at a time.

"The whole trip is published, but then we update five days ahead of time and reach out to friends and family that we know in the local area and through our social network and try to get people to come out and run with us.

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It took a lot of planning to pull off all 50 states plus the nation's capital in 50 days," explains Jeremy. Campbell's younger sister explains how it all began.

"We started in Alaska, and then we went along the top, and then down the whole entire East Coast, and then we're kind of going like, up and down, the bottom layer of the states, in the middle of the bottom ones," states Caroline.

"It was something hard to do at first, and it's definitely gotten better, keeping up with my girls who are cross-country runners, so this is their jam! I'm 47, so it's been challenging, but this is why we did this because it was not supposed to be easy," exclaims Kelly.

From the smallest towns to bustling cities, they're inspiring strangers to lace-up their running shoes to help transform lives. They'll wrap up soon on October 31 in Hawaii. Their 5Ks will all add up to running 155 miles in seven weeks. Their goal is to raise at least $100,000.

To follow their journey or learn more click here.