| Chicago – On Sunday, April 30th, thousands of people throughout the Chicago area will participate in the 36th annual March of Dimes WalkAmerica. This national event is the March of Dimes leading source of revenue. Last year, more than 20,000 walkers in the Illinois Chapter raised over $3.1 million to help fund lifesaving research to prevent birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.
The March of Dimes will also be hosting The Chicago Lakefront WalkAmerica kick-off breakfast on Thursday, March 2nd, 2006 at the Chicago Marriot. Tammie Souza, Weather Forecaster from NBC 5 will be the emcee for the breakfast. NBC 5 is a proud sponsor of Chicago’s WalkAmerica.
There are six walk sites in the Chicagoland area, including Grant Park in Chicago. The other start/finish locations include: Naperville River Walk in Naperville, Pottawatomie Park in St. Charles, Sunset Woods in Highland Park, Busse Woods in Schaumburg, and Yankee Woods in Tinley Park. At each location the Walk begins at 9:00 AM.
The funds raised will be used to help support research and education for the National Prematurity Campaign, which was launched in 2003. More than 500,000 babies will be born prematurely this year. In Illinois more than 23,300 babies are born premature every year. Prematurity is the leading cause of death in the first month of life. Since 1981, there has been a 27% increase in the rate of preterm birth in the United States and there is no known cause for nearly 50% of these premature births. In response to this growing problem, the March of Dimes launched a nationwide multi- million dollar campaign to raise public awareness and reduce rates of preterm birth. WalkAmerica helps support the campaign's goals of raising the awareness of the prematurity problem and helps fund research and education to decrease the rate of preterm birth.
For Walk locations and to find out how to participate in WalkAmerica, please call the March of Dimes at 1-800-244-WALK or online at http://www.walkamerica.org/.
The March of Dimes WalkAmerica has raised more than $1 billion for healthy babies since it began in 1970. Ninety-two cents of every dollar raised in Illinois goes into community service, advocacy, research and education programs to help all babies have a healthy start in life.
The Greater Chicago Executive WalkAmerica Committee is chaired by Linda Aitken, Senior Vice President of Citibank.
The March of Dimes is a national voluntary health agency whose mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality. Founded in 1938, the March of Dimes funds programs of research, community services, education, and advocacy to save babies and in 2003 launched a campaign to address the increasing rate of premature birth. For more information, visit the March of Dimes Web site at marchofdimes.com or its Spanish language Web site at nacersano.org.
WalkAmerica is sponsored nationally by Kmart Corp., CIGNA, Famous Footwear, FedEx, and Farmers Insurance Group. Local sponsors include American Airlines, Jewel-Osco, LaSalle Bank, TCF Bank, Harris Bank and NBC 5.
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