Friday, September 09, 2005

I received an e-mail solicitation today from Dr. Jennifer Howse, who is the president of March of Dimes. She talked about the specific needs March of Dimes is meeting in the Gulf Coast region, helping premature babies, their parents and expectant mothers as they deal with Hurricane Katrina, the flooding and its aftermath.

Mary and I immediately had the same idea, and decided to donate $500 of Will's memorial fund to March of Dimes for its work to help those dealing with the hurricane. We are in the final stages of determining how to disburse the funds we collected, and this fits well with our desire for the money to have as large an impact as possible. As I mentioned in the post below, we know how difficult it is to have a baby in the NICU; to deal with that and the loss of a home or loved ones is unimaginable.

To find out more about how the March of Dimes is helping those in need, go here. This was all I needed to read to know we needed to help: "We are providing support and comfort to families of more than 100 sick and premature babies who were transported to the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) at Women’s Hospital of Baton Rouge, Louisiana." Will was one of about a dozen babies in the most intenstive part of the University of Iowa NICU, and we saw the amazing amount of resources it took to care for that many in what comes as close to being an ideal situation as possible.

When we finalize our plans for the rest of the fund, we'll report it here. For those who wish to contribute to the March of Dimes effort in the Gulf area, see the link to the right.

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