National Prematurity Awareness Day!

Lori
I think this is a wonderful discussion! First off, I want to say I think it is so great that you are getting on board with your local chapter to participate in this year's event.

I am going to have Darcy move this discussion over to the 'Get Involved' section. I have also found a link for you from last year's PAM and PAD events so you can get some more ideas. Click here for discussion on PAD events

This should give you a great place to get started. It is really cool to see what other chapters are doing to acknowledge Prematurity awareness month around the country.

I'm not sure if my local chapter has started planning for it yet. They have been really busy with Jail and Bail's and Bikes for babies events.

I will be sure to pass along any ideas we come up with once the planning gets underway. I think it is a great idea to swap ideas so that everyone can have the best PAD/PAM possible!!

Great topic!!

Karen

Lori~ We've just started dabbling in the activities for that day, but one thing that I did in my building is to put together ziploc bags with a bandaid, coffee stirrer, plastic teaspoon and a little note explaining the significance of each item and how they relate to premature babies. I place one in each of my co-workers' boxes and they really seemed to take notice of what challenges these little ones face. I also left those little bags at each place setting for civic organization meetings that I spoke at. It's something that they can physically take home and share with their families.
Tracy

I know it will be upon us before we know it.... We have done a couple of things. One year we took cookies up to our NICU and last year we made up these little spoons with hugs (hershey) on the spoon with tulle (sp) tied over it with pink and blue ribbon. We attached a card that said "A spoonful of HUGS to SHARE"... they were a big hit at the hospital and in our local MOD chapter. Something our Mission Family committee has thought of doing is raising money to buy a digital camera and printer for our NICU.... so many parents cannot spend all day or even everyday with their babies...

Good luck with your planning. You'll have to share with us what you have come up with.

Lori,
In central Iowa, we did our first "Our Shining Stars" event last year on PAD. It was awesome! We gathered on the steps of our state capital and words were spoken and then Shonda got up and read each baby's name (whoever wanted to be involved) birthdate (& death date if they didn't make it) weight and gestation I think. As each name was read a Star was lit for that baby and held up for the crowd to see (they are the glow in the dark stars in pink and blue) It was very powerful and a great event. We are planning on doing it again this year and hopefully having an even bigger turnout.
We have also tried to get some buildings lit pink and blue, but havnen't had any luck yet, but we're working on it!
Our family was also featured on the ABC local news last year where they did a feature piece on Braden's story and ran in on PAD in conjunction with footage from the Shining stars event, and all the news anchors wore pink and blue all day long, that was great!
Hope that helps!
Carissa

Everyone,
 To raise awareness about prematurity, one of the things we do is wear our pink and blue bands. We also talk about our son's birth at 29 weeks with his weight at A POUND AND A HALF, showing pictures of him helps awarenes too. I also advocate politically for March of Dimes online.

I really want to get involved and start helping out, but I don't know how to start or what to do. I live in upstate NY. I think this is great, but its the first I've even heard of PAD! I must have been living under a rock.
Thanks in advance.

It's awesome that you want to get involved!!! We are really trying to get the word out about Prematurity and we can use all the help we can get!!! First off I would contact your closest office....Now here if I was as cool as Darcy I could find all your closest office information..but I'm not so, go to www.marchofdimes.com and enter your zip code and it will pull up your closest office and all their contact info!
Contact them and see what they have planned for the month and what they need help with! Good luck!!!
Hugs
Carissa

Ha! Carissa is right, you can enter in your zip, or look at the list below and choose the one most convenient to you.

Divisions of New York



Central New York Division

Address: 5 Adler Drive
East Syracuse, NY, 13057
Phone: (315) 463-0700
Fax: (315) 463-4433

Genesee Valley/ Finger Lakes Divisi

Address: 3445 Winton Place, Suite 121
Rochester, NY, 14623
Phone: (585) 424-3250
Fax: (585) 424-3265





Hudson Valley Division

Address: 488 Freedom Plains Road, Suite 123
Poughkeepsie, NY, 12603
Phone: (845) 454-8850
Fax: (845) 454-9072

Long Island Division

Address: 325 Crossways Park Drive
Woodbury, NY, 11797
Phone: (516) 496-2100
Fax: (516) 496-2109





New York Division

Address: 233 Park Avenue South
New York, NY, 10003
Phone: (212) 353-8353
Fax: (212) 254-3518

Northeastern New York Division

Address: 80 Wolf Road Suite 106
Albany, NY, 12205
Phone: (518) 453-0474
Fax: (518) 453-0477





Staten Island Division

Address: 1173 Forest Ave
Staten Island, NY, 10310
Phone: (718) 981-3000
Fax: (718) 981-4251

Westchester/Rockland Division

Address: 580 White Plains Road, Suite 445
Tarrytown, NY, 10591
Phone: (914) 407-5000
Fax: (914) 407-5870





Western New York Division

Address: 385 North French Rd., Suite 100 University Center
Buffalo, NY, 14228
Phone: (716) 691-3805
Fax: (716) 691-0240

Okay people, a quick question. Any ideas on what to do for a preschool. I am going to contact Jack's preschool director and ask if we can do something for the remainder of the month or even on prematurity awareness day. I am doing prematurity awareness for my NICU Family support on Monday, November 12. I know thats not the PAD but the Prematurity Summit is coming up on the 13th here so we had to do it the 12th. Any idea on how to get a preschool full of 2, 3, 4 and a few 5 year olds?

Our local MOD office is not very organized right now. . .I think our PAD plans are going to just fall through the cracks. We have one of the largest NICUs in CA 15 minutes from their office and we don't have any large things going on as far as I know! We were trying to get together to do an appreciation for our NICU staff. . .. but I don't know if it is going to work out or not! I'm so bummed!

I will be contacting a local tv station to try to get some coverage and a local radio station that always works with our children's hospital.

If you have any ideas about how to get my chapter going please let me know!

Lori

Hi Kelly,
I'm not sure if it is too late to organize this but if so you could always try to move it to WalkAmerica time. I know my local MOD office has talked about trying to get "trike-athons" going in the preschools around here. Basically the kids would get pledges based on how long/far they will ride their tricycle (or they could just get flat donations like we do for walk). Then you would set up a little track inside or outside of the school and they could do their event. You would obviously want to include a little presentation about how some babies are born sick and need help to figure out why it happens. (very basic stuff, of course).

Just an idea!
Jackie

Our local chapter is not really local to us and they never seem to have events in our area. So we decided to just spread the awareness on our own this year.
I have had pink and blue lightbulbs in my outside lights since the first of the month. We have a sign in our yard stating that it is Prematurity Awareness Month. Then over the weekend my husband and I made pink and blue ribbon candy. My nieces and nephew are going to give some out at their schools. We have members of our family that have also done the pink and blue lights and the signs in their yards.

Robin
Those candies are awesome! You guys did a great job. Way to go on raising awareness!!

Robin~ I guess it's a given that if you're from GA that most of us are not "local" to the "local chapter".... Those candies are a great idea!!

Kelly~ Our MOD office had these cute little banks that are about the size of milk cartons at school. They're pink and blue and have the MOD logo and stuff on the outside and also have a few stats on the sides. It also tells if you fill it with quarters about how much it will equal, if you fill it with dimes how much, etc. That would be an easy way for preschoolers to raise money because if other men are like my husband they empty their pockets every afternoon of change. I also keep a cup by the washing machine to catch any spare change that I might find there.
Tracy