Parents, kids celebrate day of ‘miracles’
Cheers echoed throughout Genoa Park as the tiny racers took off, eager to snap the finish-line tape several yards ahead of them.
At the first-ever Superhero Sprint at the Greater Columbus March for Babies, Spider-Man, Wonder Woman and Iron Man stood on the sidelines. Sunday’s superstars were children with purple capes streaming behind them bearing a powerful message: “Proof that miracles happen.”
The participants were age 10 or younger, many of whom were born prematurely.
“These are our superheroes — some of the strongest people we know,” said Kevin Dooley, executive director for the March of Dimes in Columbus.
The March for Babies is the largest annual fundraiser for the March of Dimes, a national nonprofit organization that works to improve the health of pregnant women, mothers and babies. Proceeds from hundreds of marches across the U.S., including 13 in Ohio, fund research to prevent premature births, birth defects and infant mortality. They also support clinics and treatments that help women have full-term pregnancies and healthy babies.
Columbus marchers walked 1 or 3 miles, many carrying tiny babies, colorful balloons or memorial signs. The Superhero Sprint was the event’s finale.
Jennifer and Chris Bedell, of Worthington, have attended the last four years with their two little miracles — 4-yearold twins Evelyn and Gwenyth, who were born at nearly 28 weeks old. A full-term pregnancy is 39 to 40 weeks, according to the Society for Maternal-Fetal Medicine.
Evelyn and Gwenyth each weighed just a little more than 2 pounds at birth. The pair spent several weeks in OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital’s neonatal intensive care unit, where Evelyn received two blood transfusions and both girls needed ventilators to support their breathing. Aside from Gwenyth needing glasses, they haven’t experienced any long-term complications.
On Sunday morning, the two smiling, healthy, blonde girls enjoyed the sunshine and splashed their toes in the fountains along the Scioto riverfront.
“We’re lucky our roller coaster ride only had little humps,” Jennifer Bedell said.
Each year in Ohio, about 14,000 out of 140,000 babies, or 10 percent, typically are born too soon, according to the March of Dimes.
About 1,000 babies die before reaching their first birthday, with premature birth as the leading cause of death. Those who do survive often still face serious and lifelong health problems, including intellectual delays, breathing problems, vision loss and cerebral palsy.
Infant health is an important discussion in Ohio, where the infant-mortality rate was 7.2 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2015 — well above the national rate of 5.9, according to the Ohio Department of Health.
The rate is even worse in Franklin County, despite ongoing local initiatives aiming to addressing the problem. It increased to 8.8 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2016, up from 7.7 in 2015, according to preliminary data from Columbus Public Health.
“Our goal is to give every baby a fighting chance,” Dooley said.
The 5,000 or so who participated in Columbus’ March for Babies collected more than $280,000 as of Sunday night and are still accepting donations at www.marchforbabies. org/event/greatercolumbus.