DES MOINES, Iowa — It’s been a little more than a year since the Naiditch family lost their 5-year-old son, Paxton, after complications of a congenital heart defect. 

Now, the Ankeny family is raising money to give back to other children that may be in similar situations. 

They created a nonprofit, called “Pages from Paxton,” that raises money to buy books for children’s hospitals or other underserved places. Paxton had a passion for reading.

The first fundraising event was Friday at A.H. Blank Golf Course in Des Moines. The event was called “Pars Fore Paxton” and featured a golf scramble, mini golf and an auction.

Paxton spent a lot of his life with doctors, having three open heart surgeries while being cared for at the Omaha Children’s Hospital. He also was on the autism spectrum, but he learned to read at a young age, and he loved it.

“He would fall asleep with ten books in his bed. I mean, wanting to read more and more every night,” Aaron Naiditch, Paxton’s dad said. “It was just a way that we felt we could honor him.”

“This one taught himself to read, my Paxton. And even after having all three surgeries,” his mom Elise Naiditch said. “It was really a testament to him loving to read and re-reading the same books over and over.”

Paxton was born with a condition called HHS Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, which essentially means he was born with half his heart. But he certainly had a full heart in spirit.

“Always smiling. You would never know, looking at him, that anything was ever wrong with him,” Aaron said. “He was always such a happy kid. He would love all these people out here. He’d come up to them and just high five them. He wanted to be kind to everybody.”

“He was feisty in utero. He was feisty during his surgeries. He was even feisty when he was healthy, jumping off the couch, doing all the things. And we were like, you have half of a heart. And he didn’t care,” his mom said. “Our theme this year has been ‘do it scared, do it strong’.”

The Naiditch family said they had no clue how to start and run a nonprofit, but they want to keep honoring Paxton through his love of reading. 

“It was important just for us to fill a void. He was a huge chunk of our life. We wanted to fill it by giving back and keeping his legacy alive,” his dad said. 

“We are just trying to raise money, spread awareness, make sure that kids, especially medically challenged kids, have what they need in the hospital,” Elise said. “We want to get library carts in the hospitals so the kids can just go pick out the books and take them home with them.”

Right now, they plan to donate these books to the Des Moines, Omaha, St. Louis and Twin Cities areas, but hope to expand even further in the future. 

“We want them to be able to have fun reading as much as Paxton did,” his brother, Camden, said.

In order to buy the books, money must be fundraised. The “Pars Fore Paxton” event featured a special competition on Hole 12 called “Outdrive the Dad”.

“They can pay to outdrive me. They’ve got to hit the fairway and then if they do, I’ve got to hit the fairway,” Aaron said. “And I’m a weekend hacker, so I sometimes get to the fairway, sometimes don’t. And they win raffle tickets.”

The goal for the event on Friday was to raise $20,000 but the family was counting mid-afternoon and said that they would actually reach around $30,000.

Paxton would’ve turned 7 years old this upcoming November 14. His family is missing him every day and want to keep talking about him to honor, remember and inspire others. 

“We’ll always be a heart family. Now we just have a little extra glimmer that watches over us.”