March of Dimes

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We knew how lucky we were when we woke up on May 12, 2002, and Jake and Josh were still fighting for their lives in the NICU. Our appreciation grew every day thereafter.

Around February 2005, things were relatively calm enough in our lives that we were ready to give back to society. But how?

Lori heard about the March of Dimes' WalkAmerica event, so we signed up. We knew the March of Dimes name, but we had no idea that it was the organization leading the charge in the fight against prematurity.

We  became involved in the newly formed "family team" category of the Walk.  Our "Aron Family Team" raised nearly $5,000, making us the top  fund-raisers in Dallas for 2005. As a result, we became the co-coordinators of the 2006 Family Teams campaign.

With the help of a poker tournament, we doubled our take to a shade under $10,000, again tops in Dallas for 2006. We raised more than $7,500 in 2007.

In 2008, the event became known as March for Babies. 

You already know the March of Dimes helped cured polio. But did you know that made it the first (and still only) charitable organization to meet its stated goal of wiping out a disease?

OK, how about this one - did you know what the March of Dimes was the pioneer of the charity walk?

It all started in San Antonio in October 1970. It was called WalkAmerica, until a rebranding a few years ago resulted in the much more apt title of March for Babies.

This is the landing page for links to each year of our involvement. We look forward to adding entries for many more years.

Wow.

Our fifth year of being involved with this great event and great organization was our favorite. We were fortunate enough to speak to some wonderful groups and to take part in some really fun events. The topper, of course, was the walk itself, highlighted by Jake's stirring rendition of the national anthem, which he learned to perform at this event.

Although the weather dampened things, Jakey brightened the mood with the song - as evidenced by the roar from a crowd of about 25,000. That's not just our biased perspective; many others have told us so. 

Keep scrolling down to relive our thrills and click here to see how our fund-raising went.

You  can also click around to see what else we've done for the March of  Dimes in 2009, to learn about Jake's DVD debut and to catch up with big  brother Zac.

The video of Jake's performance: In the  above video, you see a guy behind Jake who is wearing a suit and tie; his name is Dallas city councilman Sheffie Kadane, and he is videotaping  this from an angle that shows much of what Jake saw -- thousands and thousands of people. 

Here is that video, courtesy of Councilman Kadane: 

The video of our entire time being honored on stage: 

We laced 'em up for a sixth year, and had a great time - especially  with our cumulative contributions cracking the $40,000 plateau.

Despite  threatening skies, the event drew more than 40,000 people (there's that number again) ... including 30 members of our Aron Family Team. 

The  day before, we also got to take part in an event for Austin Industries.  They had people donate to the March of Dimes in honor of pies being  thrown in the face of some bosses. Guess who got to do the throwing?  Scroll down for some pictures and links to more online photos.