Southern Fall/Winter 2022

CARING
Ben Laufer ’22’s first impression of the Ironman 70.3 was how miserable it sounded. On a
quick second thought, he considered how cool it would be to say he accomplished the longdistance
triathlon, and his decision was locked in knowing he would swim, bike, and run for a
reason bigger than himself.
Laufer, now based in Atlanta, decided to train and raise starter funds for The Ava Grace
Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to research, advocacy, and education for rare genetic
differences in children, founded by Associate Professor of Psychology Dr. Joe Chandler ’03
and his wife, Tonya Chandler.
“I believe great people deserve great things done for them,” Laufer says, “and I’m a big
believer in helping people during dark times in their lives. Dr. Chandler being such a special
person, I wanted to make any difference I could.”
During Laufer’s time as a psychology major— through which he had Chandler as a
professor — the Chandlers were closely monitoring the health of their daughter, Ava
Grace Chandler, who was born with a rare genetic difference called Kagami-Ogata
Syndrome (KOS) that fewer than 100 children have worldwide. Most children with
KOS do not survive the first week of life.
The Birmingham-Southern community got to know Ava Grace through Dr.
Chandler’s updates to a Facebook group called “Baby Girl Chandler,” where he
frequently referred to her as “Sweet Pea.” She was 10 months old and the “strongest
little warrior any of us have ever seen,” Chandler wrote, with fiery red hair to match
her spirit, and she was beloved by her family, her UAB and Children’s NICU nurses, and so many more.
On Aug. 4, the Chandlers shared this post: “Ava Grace Chandler passed away peacefully, in Tonya’s arms,
at 12:15 a.m. on August 4th, 2022. We got to take her to the rooftop garden at Children’s, where she felt a
beautiful breeze on her cheeks for the first time and we read ‘Goodnight Moon’ under an open night sky.”
Following the news, Laufer was inspired to complete an Ironman 70.3 to help raise start-up funds for
the Chandler’s foundation. He made the decision just five weeks before the Sept. 25 race in Augusta,
Ga. Training was not easy, especially after testing positive for COVID-19 the day after he signed up and
suffering a stress fracture one week before the race. Still, Laufer pointed his friends, family, and social media
followers to The Ava Grace Foundation.
With only about two and a half weeks of training behind him, Laufer persevered throughout the Ironman
70.3, a triathlon consisting of a 1.2-mile swim, 56-mile bike ride, and 13.1-mile run. He was on track to finish
in the top 30 percentile until the wrong amount of Gatorade Endurance disrupted his water and electrolyte
balance, his muscles cramped, and he had to slow down to keep biking and running.
Nonetheless, Laufer completed the race and increased awareness of the Chandler family’s dedicated
work to increase research for genetic differences. He raised more than $2,000 towards an actively growing
campaign for the foundation, and Chandler credits him for helping the campaign and foundation get on its feet.
“He fought through hell and high water, literally, to cross the finish line,” Chandler writes in a
Facebook message. “Thank you, Ben, for honoring Ava Grace’s fighting spirit with your own. You are
an extraordinary young man.”
Scan the QR code to
learn more about The
Ava Grace Foundation.
32 / ’southern