|
President George W. Bush and March of Dimes National Ambassador 5-year-old Alexa Ostolaza peak out the window looking for the President's dogs from the Oval Office. The Gainesville resident recently visited the President on his 60th birthday.
(Pictured L-R: President Bush, Alexa Ostolaza, James E. Sproull, Jr., chairman of the Board of Trustees of the March of Dimes, and Alexa's parents Jessica and Josue Ostolaza. (White House photo by Kimberlee Hewitt)
The relationship of the March of Dimes and the White House go way back. The organization’s founder President Franklin Delano Roosevelt formed the March of Dimes to find a cure for polio. After successfully doing so, the March of Dimes focused their efforts to the number one threat to babies – birth defects, infant mortality, and premature birth.
Alexa was born 15 weeks premature weighing only 1 pound, 4 ounces, and has spend the last year traveling the country with her parents sharing her story with volunteers, celebrities and government officials and raise much-needed awareness about the deepening crisis of premature birth. |
