Air Conditioning

Eleven-year-old Ashlee Livingston ran with all her might right up to the thick white chalk line and then leaped through the air. A huge grin never left the Long Beach girl’s face as she landed with a thud on soft sand some six feet away.

Across the field stood Jason Peretz. Warming up for his first 50-meter dash, the 5-year-old Tarzana boy twisted at the waist, this way and that, before doing his jumping jacks.

Ashlee and Jason were among more than 100 children with asthma competing in track-and-field events, held especially for them, at Cal State Northridge on Sunday afternoon.

The Breath Games, now in their 14th year, give children with asthma an opportunity to play sports and help them and their families learn to cope with the disorder.

“It’s the idea that you can be out there and do everything. You’re not isolated from your peers,” said Dr. Jud Schoendorf, the Long Beach allergist and asthma specialist who founded the event.

Asthma is the leading serious chronic illness of children in the United States, accounting for one of every six pediatric emergency room visits and about 10 million lost school days annually, according to the American Lung Assn. of Los Angeles County, organizers of the event. An estimated 4.8 million children nationwide suffer from asthma.

Because of the potential danger, parents of asthmatic children often keep them from playing sports, Schoendorf said. In his practice, he also noticed his young patients shying away from participating “because they didn’t want to wheeze in front of their friends.”

But exercise can provide important physical and emotional benefits for child asthmatics, Schoendorf said. The deep breathing induced by physical activity can improve lung strength, as long as the children do not overexert themselves, he said.

Playing sports also can boost asthmatic children’s self-confidence as they realize they’re not so different from other kids.

“It just improves their whole well-being,” Schoendorf said.

Before competition began Sunday, the young athletes, ages 5 to 14, clad in red Breath Games T-shirts, sat quietly in a row. Sophomore Lori Broderson, a member of the Cal State Northridge swim team who is also asthmatic, encouraged them not to let their condition hinder their participation in sports or anything else.

“Know your limits, know your boundaries, but don’t let them” hold you back, she said.

For some of the family members in the audience, the occasion was especially poignant as they watched their loved ones push themselves physically.

“This is so exciting,” said Sandi Lampert, a Los Angeles Mission College professor whose 5-year-old grandson, Jason, bent over and touched his toes to warm up before running. Jason is already learning that he can’t eat certain foods or do certain things because of his asthma, she said.

“It’s difficult for a little guy. But, here, he can see there are other kids like him,” she said. “It makes them feel they’re not outcasts.”

Some children said playing sports helps them feel free of the asthma.

“I can’t over-run or over-do,” Ashlee said. “But when I run or jump, I put my asthma thoughts behind me, and it’s like I soar.”

Lilly Levy, a school volunteer from Winnetka, said participating in the Breath Games has taught her daughter, 8-year-old Jeanmarie, to be more active.

“It’s helped her not to be timid about things like running,” Levy said.

Jeanmarie, who had just finished a 50-meter dash, smiled.

The Breath Games, Ashlee said, are “a good way to show kids: Don’t be afraid of your asthma. You can do things just like kids without asthma, and asthma can’t stop you.”