| (Chicago)— For the fourteenth consecutive year, the Chicago Automobile Trade Association has invited the March of Dimes to take part in the First Look for Charity Auto Show preview at McCormick Place on Thursday, February 10th, 2005.
The March of Dimes is the number one voluntary health agency in the nation dedicated to the health of mothers and infants. With the support of over three million volunteers, the March of Dimes fights to give every baby a healthy start in life through programs of research, education, community service and advocacy.
In 1938, President Franklin D. Roosevelt founded the March of Dimes to battle polio, which was crippling hundreds of children each year. Volunteers from across the nation worked together to raise funds for the development of a polio vaccine. Their support, along with the dedication of March of Dimes funded researchers, brought about the Salk vaccine in April 1955. The March of Dimes is the only organization that has conquered the disease that it set out to eliminate.
Encouraged by this immense achievement, the March of Dimes then turned its focus to a new and even greater challenge: to prevent birth defects and infant mortality. Since then, March of Dimes lifesaving research and innovative prevention programs have saved millions of babies from death or disability. Among these accomplishments are the development of prenatal diagnostic tests for genetic birth defects, surfactant therapy to help babies with respiratory distress syndrome to breathe, and an aggressive folic acid campaign to educate all women of childbearing age that taking the B vitamin folic acid before and during pregnancy can reduce neural tube defects by up to seventy percent. In 2003, the March of Dimes launched a five-year campaign to address the increasing rate of premature birth.
While great advances are consistently being made, there is still much work to be done. Babies born premature are twelve times more likely to die within their first year of life. The March of Dimes is working to determine the cause of premature births and a means of prevention. Infant mortality in America must be reduced, the technology of gene therapy must be furthered, and every pregnant woman must have access to healthcare for herself and her baby.
For more information on the March of Dimes programs or to request additional information, please call 312-435-4007. |
