50 Years of Saving Children’s Lives
For more than 50 years, the March of Dimes has been fighting to prevent birth defects and other leading causes of infant death and disability. As the leading nonprofit for baby health, this national/grassroots organization focuses intently on moms and their needs before, during, and after pregnancy.
“Our goal is to support programs that help more babies be born healthy, and help those who are born prematurely or with birth defects to survive and thrive,” said Dr. Jennifer Howse, President of March of Dimes.
PaperChain and member community newspapers have partnered with March of Dimes since 2002, generously dedicating advertising space to March of Dimes messages and PSAs, valued at millions of dollars. As we enter into our eighth year of working together to save babies’ lives, let’s reflect upon the March of Dimes successes in which PaperChain members across the country can be proud:
- Research: The March of Dimes is funding approximately $100 million in biomedical research, helping to support 466 scientists in the United States, Canada, and 10 other countries. This includes $4.3 million committed to Prematurity Research Initiative grants in 2007.
- Community service — March of Dimes chapters award hundreds of grants each year to local organizations focused on maternal and infant health issues such as teen pregnancy, smoking, and sudden infant death syndrome.
- Education: When it comes to getting moms the resources they need, the March of Dimes is a one-stop source. The web site is packed with practical information, plus the latest medical and scientific research findings. Questions can be emailed and answered in both English and Spanish by health specialists, and expectant moms can get daily text messages containing health tips. A podcast series makes health topics available on demand. There’s a fun online scrapbooking activity, too.
- Advocacy — At the federal and state levels, the March of Dimes seeks to improve access to health coverage for all babies, children, and women of childbearing age, and to increase federal support for prematurity-related research. Thanks to the efforts of the March of Dimes and its partners, 88 percent of all babies born in the U.S. live in states that now require newborns to be screened for life-threatening metabolic disorders – but much more needs to be done.
- NICU families — The March of Dimes NICU Family Support© project has expanded to sites in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico, reaching more than 40,000 families in 2007 with information and comfort as they coped with having a sick or premature baby in newborn intensive care.
- Fundraising: For the last 25 years, the March of Dimes has partnered with Kmart and 16,000 other corporate and family teams for its premier annual fundraising event, March for Babies. In 2008, this event is expected to top $116 million nationwide.
March for Babies Campaign 2009
This ad can be downloaded by clicking here. There is both a color and black & white version. Additional sizes of these ads can be accessed at www.paperchainnetwork.net by clicking the March of Dimes link.
The annual spring events will be conducted soon throughout the United States. To find out when the March for Babies is being held in your community visit www.marchforbabies.org. Click "Find an Event" and then click your state. Every event is listed at this location.
March of Dimes is the leading organization for pregnancy and baby health and its mission is to improve the health of babies by preventing health defects, premature birth and infant mortality.
March of Dimes has requested that members of PaperChain run Public Service Announcements announcing this important activity during the Spring, when space permits in your publication.
Please coordinate your placement of these ads with your local chapter of the March of Dimes event. And, please run the ads as often as you can preceding your local march. This will provide the best results for the campaign.
This is also a great opportunity to interact with the community leaders supporting your local walk.
Thank you for your consideration. For each ad you run, please fill out an affidavit (attached to the downloaded ad copy) and return it to Vinnie Grassis, PaperChain March of Dimes Chair, at vgrassia@jcpgroup.com.
To find out more about how the March of Dimes helps moms and babies, visit marchofdimes.com or nacersano.org.