Hundreds Walked to Raise Money for March of Dimes

March for Babies took place at Scheels Arena this morning to help the fight against premature births

FARGO, N.D. — Hundreds of people in Fargo marched and raised money to help babies live through birth and move on to healthy lives. If you’ve had a baby, been a baby or know a baby…then you’ve been impacted by the March of Dimes.

“March of Dimes is something that to be honest with you I’m not sure I knew how important it was until after our kids were born,” said Corey Schaefer, Y94 morning show host.

More than 200 people laced up their walking shoes to join the March for Babies to help raise funds for little ones.

It’s hosted by March of Dimes, a nationwide group which aims to prevent birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.

Corey Schaefer, known as Zero from Y94, says he has a reason to be passionate about the march.

“Well our daughters were born three months early and spent three months in the NICU Sanford Children’s Hospital in downtown Fargo,” said Schaefer.

It was an emotion filled journey.

“It was a long three months. It was a very long three months. There was times where we could’ve lost either of them,” said Schaefer.

March of Dimes aims to prevent this from happening across the country.

“What we do here today it raises money to support the March of Dimes programs of research and education, community services like our family support program and our advocacy efforts around the country,” said Susan Bushnell, Associate President West Region March of Dimes. “We’ve got some inflatables here and activities for the kids and we’re going to have lunch provided by Subway.”

And it’s not all just fun and games. Organizers and walkers say why it’s so important to walk for a cause.

“I think people don’t realize how common it is. How common premature birth, infant loss and birth defects are,” said Martha Mink from Moorhead.

Martha Mink had a baby boy named JP. He was born 25 weeks premature. Unfortunately, he only lived for three days due to birth complications.

Mink and her husband support March of Dimes whenever they can so fewer parents experience the same thing.

“We’re big Disney fans so we have a little Mickey Mouse hidden in the clouds to represent him in heaven,” said Mink.

“People probably as the years go on and their kids get away from infancy, they don’t like to talk about that nightmare of their kids being born early,” said Schaefer.

They say banding together makes moving on a little easier.

“And then an event like this brings out so many people that have been touched by premature birth,” said Schaefer. “It’s just so amazing to see the community united. It’s so easy to run away from your nightmares sometimes. Cuties like this shouldn’t have to deal with stuff like that.”

“It changes your life as soon as it happens to you,” said Mink.

March of Dimes is the longest walk program in the country, starting in 1970.

The goal was to raise more than $50,000.