March for Babies: Team Mighty Maxwell

Thunderstorms didn't keep us from walking in Sunday's March for Babies!

Why did we walk?  Every year thousands of babies are born too soon.  Dr. Ratliff and her husband's son, Max, is one of those babies.  He was born April 9, 2011, and at just over a year of age is still in the NICU.  He has grown from 1 pound 3 ounces to over 16 pounds, but his lungs are still immature and he requires a ventilator to breathe.

We want to support Max and the more than half a million babies who are born too early every year.

March of Dimes has their March for Babies every year to celebrate and remember the babies who are born too early, are sick, or die in the newborn period.  Teams raise money to support research to help babies grow into healthy children.  Teams then join the celebration at the walk.  Radio Disney was on hand to entertain kids before the walk, along with bounce houses, face painting, and more fun!

Several friends and family members joined team "Mighty Maxwell."  We met under the Family team tent and tried to wait out some of the rain.

 At this point people were in good spirits waiting for the 10am start time.

 The sun was mostly out until just before walk time...

The occasional light rain lead to a severe downpour with lightening and thunder.  During a break from the downpour we decided to start the walk in a "lighter" rain.  Yes, we got wet from head to toe!

After the walk some of us had fun listening to the band celebrate under a protective covering.  There were even characters from Star Wars walking around for photo ops!

What a fun way to celebrate all these babies, support parents, and fund researchers!

The money raised to help premature and sick newborns live to be healthy children is worth the wet feet!

For more information on the March of Dimes research, click here. For information on March for Babies, click here.