Marcelas Owens first publicly told his story at a fundraising breakfast for the First Place School. Then he spoke at the Healthcare for All March in Seattle that drew an estimated 5,000 participants. Then he talked to Senator Patty Murray. And from there? Things just grew.
In the end, the 11-year-old whose mother’s death drew him into the national health care debate was standing at President Barack Obama’s elbow when the health reform bill was signed, an image that landed on the front page of The New York Times. He was also a target during the most heated debates on national radio, with Rush Limbaugh saying that “Obamacare” wouldn’t have saved his mom.
The soft-spoken fifth-grader knows some of the reasons why he was singled out.
“My voice might get to be heard bigger – not because my voice is bigger or louder, but because you don’t see that many kids out there,” Marcelas says. But then, not many kids have followed the path that he has.
His mother, Tiffany Owens, died three years ago after the loss of a job led to the loss of health insurance, leading to an emergency room visit where it was too late to effectively treat the condition that ultimately took her life. She had pulmonary hypertension, a condition that makes it hard for the heart to pump blood through the lungs.
His mother’s death turned Marcelas into an activist, following in the footsteps of his grandmother, Gina Owens, whose business card even reads: “Community Advocacy – effecting change one person at a time.”
“It became important for Marcelas to finish what his mom started when she passed,” Owens says.
Owens was an activist long before the untimely death of her daughter. In 2001 a canvasser for the advocacy group Washington CAN! knocked on her door and asked her what she thought needed to change. Before long she was at a Washington CAN! meeting. She has talked to legislators in Olympia; Tiffany Owens did the same.
So,when Marcelas’ wanted to make a difference, he knew he could ask his grandmother for help.
Owens says that she was hesitant about getting her grandson involved in advocacy, but she thought about how many people don’t speak up to try and make things better and decided she was ready to “stand with him” in this fight.
He knows his story is exceptional – he says it “feels like a dream” – but Marcelas also believes other kids can and should get involved in advocating for what they believe in.
“You can never know what can happen,” he says. “Maybe your voice can be the difference-maker.”
