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National Champs Visit Preemies in the NICU
Members of the 2008 NCAA National Championship University of Florida football team recently visited the neonatal intensive care unit at Shands Hospital in Gainesville to see first hand what premature birth looks like.  

                                                                                              Players took their SEC Championship Ring and slipped it over the baby’s arm to show how tiny preemies really are, and that these babies with the help of the March of Dimes are the real champions. While preterm birth dropped slightly in 2007 one in every seven babies born in Florida is premature. Preterm Birth Quick Facts.

(Photo Above: Mom Monica Jordan holds baby Hailey’s tiny arm with the 2008 SEC Championship ring).
While in the NICU, the players visited with families and taped interviews that will be shown on the jumbotrons during the strongman Gator Charity Challenge on July 31 at University of Florida’s Ben Hill Griffin Stadium.  (Photo L-R: University of Florida football players Desmond Parks, William Green, Duke Lemmens, James Wilson, Sam Robey, and David Larson with March of Dimes Ambassador Carter Almond at Shands Hospital in Gainesville).