As the 2011 March for Babies approaches and organizations and businesses gear up their fundraising efforts, I feel compelled to share the Mission of the March of Dimes, the impact this organization has had on my life, and its relevance to all generations.
Let me begin by describing two opposing scenes. My role as Miss Alabama has afforded me the wonderful opportunity to speak to a wide variety of groups. When I visit with groups from my parents' or grandparents' generations and I ask the question, "Who knows what the March of Dimes does?", every hand in the room goes up.
Now, when I speak to college and high school groups and ask the same question, only a fraction of hands go up. While this is disheartening, I take it as a challenge-a challenge to educate my peers and to involve them with this irreplaceable organization. This generation contains the future organizers, leaders, and catalysts for compassion, so I work to engage my peers with the March of Dimes.
In today's society, the March of Dimes works to prevent premature birth, birth defects, and infant mortality. The organization began over seven decades ago when FDR organized the National Foundation For Infantile Paralysis, an effort to eradicate polio. After Dr. Salk's discovery of a polio vaccine, funded and supported by FDR's foundation, and the polio epidemic was defeated, then the organization reorganized and re-purposed. In 1958 the March of Dimes became an advocate for healthy pregnancies and babies.
On Christmas Eve 1988, I was born nearly one month premature. My lungs were not fully developed and I struggled with pneumonia. For over three weeks, my parents spent every waking moment worried about the unknown. That fear and anxiety continued until they took me home. But my story has a happy ending. My family was blessed and my story had a happy ending, but that is not the case for every family.
The significance of the March of Dimes took on a whole new meaning for me after a visit to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at the UAB Women and Infants Center. I met several families with stories like mine, but they were still staring down a long road of trials and challenges. We I saw a three month old little boy who was smaller than a newborn and had already overcome all odds and was still fighting like a champ. The March of Dimes works to ensure that stories like mine and stories like his become part of society's past, not our future.
The March of Dimes advocates on behalf of families through research, advocacy, and education, with the principle mission of "helping moms have full term pregnancies." They fund research, they organize education programs for expecting mothers, they provide informational materials for health professionals, and much much more. The March of Dimes touches so many lives and will continue to touch lives as long as we educate the volunteer force of the future about this important mission.
The important thing to remember is that every hour, every dollar, and every volunteer is a vital part of this effort. There are no insignificant contributions. Volunteers are what power the March of Dimes-the people who give of themselves during their time off and without any expectation of reciprocity.
You can volunteer in many ways and with varying levels of time commitment, just volunteer! Visit http://www.marchofdimes.com/ or http://www.marchforbabies.org/ to find out to get involved with your local March of Dimes.
See you at the March!
Ashley
Photo Courtesy of http://www.marchforbabies.com/
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