Kansas City, MO—Teams of employees and their families from 250 corporations and organizations, in addition to hundreds of individual residents of Kansas City recently walked to help the March of Dimes fund critical initiatives for research, education and advocacy to help prevent premature birth, a leading cause of newborn death and a major cause of lifelong disabilities.
This serious problem has increased 27 percent since 1981. It affects more than 476,000 babies every year or one out of every eight. More than half of all premature births happen for unknown reasons.
“Here in Kansas City I’m proud that we’re one of 1,100 places in the nation where caring people banded together to save babies from premature birth,” said Jane Kohl, WalkAmerica Co-Chair. “It feels good to get out and do something big that helps babies who are so very small. I know Kansas City is making a difference,” she added. “Over the past 66 years, the March of Dimes has saved millions of babies from death and disability, because of people like these who are willing to give their time, talent and money to work toward the day when no baby is born too soon or too small,” she said.
In 2004 the national sponsors for WalkAmerica are CIGNA, Kmart, Famous Footwear and Discovery Health. “We’re proud here in Kansas City to also have Sprint, Farmers Insurance, Black & Veatch, Lockton Companies, CitiCards and Lewis, Rice & Fingeresh as sponsors,” Kohl said.
The March of Dimes is a national voluntary health agency whose mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects 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 five-year campaign to address the increasing rate of premature birth. For more information, visit the March of Dimes Web site at www.marchofdimes.com or its Spanish Web site at www.nacersano.org.
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