On Sunday April 27, 2003, members of the community and students from Plymouth State College joined together to participate in the March of Dimes WalkAmerica. The March of Dimes association has been around since 1939 helping bring people together to work toward one common goal. “March of Dimes researchers, volunteers, educators, outreach workers and advocates work together to give all babies a fighting chance against the threats to their health: prematurity, birth defects, low birth weight.”
Though the March of Dimes association started out by working towards finding a cure for polio, they accomplished that and moved toward working at spreading awareness of and help for babies born prematurely. WalkAmerica is an association that raises money to help March of Dimes fund research on the causes of and help for babies born prematurely. People who participate in the March of Dimes WalkAmerica usually collect donations for the March of Dimes association that goes toward this research. On Sunday April 27, the March of Dimes held walks in eleven towns all over New Hampshire in order to raise money and awareness for their cause and Plymouth was one of the towns that participated.
Registration for the March of Dimes WalkAmerica started at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday in downtown Plymouth. There was a tent set up for the march with a table for registration and a table with orange juice, coffee, and assorted breakfast items. The day was started with a brief welcoming to everyone participating in WalkAmerica and warm-up exercises. The people were then invited to start the walk. There were two different trails to walk, either the one-mile walk or the three-mile walk. Many people who participated in the walk brought in donations for the March of Dimes WalkAmerica association, adding to the success of this organization.
The origins of the March of Dimes started with former President Roosevelt who first started what was originally called The National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, an organization to bring people together in the fight against polio. Polio was a debilitating disease that affected many people, including FDR himself. “FDR believed that people could solve any problem if they worked together.” The phrase March of Dimes was created by comedian Eddie Cantor who asked radio listeners to send dimes to the White House to help the cause. The name stuck with people and the name of the organization was changed to the March of Dimes in 1979 and the first chapter was opened in 1939 in Coshocton, Ohio. The March of Dimes provided Dr. Jonas Sulk with funding to work on finding a cure for the polio virus in 1948 and by 1952 he found a vaccine that was affect in preventing polio. By 1954 the Salk vaccine was being given to many children with their childhood immunizations in order to prevent anymore cases of polio. The March of Dimes foundation has raised money over the years in order to help the victims and their families suffering from polio.
Luckily, there are fewer and fewer cases of polio and many babies receive the Salk vaccine. In fact, the vaccine has worked so well that a there hasn’t been a new case of polio reported since 1991 in the Western Hemisphere thanks to the efforts of the March of Dimes and all of the volunteers who support the organization. Now, the March of Dimes association has taken on the battle of finding out why babies are born prematurely and helping bring awareness of neonatal care in order to prevent premature births. WalkAmerica helps raise money in order to fund the research that needs to be done to help premature babies. The first WalkAmerica was held in 1970 and countless more have been held from then to today raising more than one billion dollars for research. It is wonderful that March of Dimes could hold WalkAmerica all over New Hampshire in order to help their cause and it is wonderful that Plymouth was able to take steps in helping the March of Dimes.