January 1, 2013
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| 2012 Des Moines' March for Babies (Greg Wilcox, Ron Lower and Governor Terry Branstad) |
This all started one day in 2012 at the March for Babies in Des Moines, Iowa. 2013 is the 75th anniversary of the founding of the March of Dimes. A few weeks ago I stepped down from being the Iowa Chapter Chair for the March of Dimes and handed the post over to Chad D. Simmons. I wanted to leave a legacy with the chapter and also celebrate the anniversary of our organization. From that was born the idea to walk across Iowa and raise awareness and funding for the 2013 March for Babies campaign. My goal is to raise $100 per mile of the walk. Greg Wilcox, who has been a member of the Iowa Chapter board for 20 years, pledged the first mile and I have pledged the next 10, so the first 11 miles of the 316 are funded. I hope by posting to the blog and twittering I can keep people aware of progress of the walk and generate interest in supporting the March of Dimes.
I have bought my walking stick and yellow reflective vest. I also have googled the route from Council Bluffs to Dubuque and discovered the ability to get walking directions from their map site. It is roughly 316 miles and according to Goggle about 106 hours of walking. As a project manager by trade I have broken the route down into milestones and planned accordingly. I will start on January 3, 2013, the 75th Anniversary of the founding of the March of Dimes by Franklin D. Roosevelt and end on September 19, 2013 in Dubuque. I intend to dip the walking stick into both great rivers bounding our great state of Iowa; the Mississippi and Missouri Rivers.
Below is the link to my Team page where additional information and links to other March of Dimes’ sites, including locations of events held across Iowa by our Iowa Chapter can be found. The page also has the ability to accept online donations for my walk goal. As people pledge I will include their names on the blog site as recognition of their support. Any amount large or small is important to our babies and children.
I will post again on the 3rd as I begin four days of the walk with the first leg being between Council Bluffs and Atlantic, Iowa. I hope to have twitter account set up before the walk and if I do I will update the blog with the twitter information.
http://www.marchforbabies.org/team/t1956868
