Babies march this weekend helps the survival rate for preemies
Earlier this month, Beth and Jeff Titus, and their twin sons, Devin and Dake, were the guests of honor at Zurich Towers in Schaumburg, home to 2,300 employees who work at the company's North American headquarters.
The couple, with their active 2-year-olds, helped launch the company's kickoff for Sunday's March for Babies at Busse Woods in Elk Grove Village. It will be the 39th annual walk-a-thon fundraiser mounted by the March of Dimes, and one which 500 Zurich employees plan to support.
At the Schaumburg headquarters alone, they hope to raise $12,000 for the walk through pledges and a variety of contests inside the two towers. Seeing the twins at the kickoff celebration only intensified their fundraising, officials says.
"We anticipate seeing a 5 percent increase over the amount we raised last year," says Jillian Walsh, employee programs and community relations manager. "Our employees have a lot of energy and are excited to participate in the various fundraising events we have planned."
Beth Titus is one of them. Each day she makes her 63-mile commute to Zurich from her home near Rockford for her job as a claims specialist in the mass litigation area.
A co-worker in her department, Rebecca Milbert, coordinates the North Suburban walk, and she nominated Beth Titus and her family to serve as the 2009 March of Dimes' ambassador family.
Titus needed little convincing and quickly agreed. After all, she says, her boys are her "little miracle babies."
Dake and Devin were born prematurely at 23.5 weeks, after Beth Titus developed a bladder infection that led to preterm labor.
"I had no idea I was going to deliver," Beth Titus says. "I thought I was going to be on bed rest for the next four months."
Instead her sons arrived, weighing a mere 1 pound, 7 ounces each at birth. Dangerously premature, they would spend the next four months in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of Rockford Memorial Hospital, and undergo a series of lifesaving treatments.
Both developed a common condition among preemies, retinopathy, that could have led to their retinas detaching, leading Dake to undergo laser surgery. They later underwent heart surgeries to close a valve, before having bilateral hernia repair surgery.
Together, they overcame the tremendous odds faced by infants born at less than 24 weeks gestation, and in fact, have thrived. The active toddlers look like the picture of health, and as if just on cue, they are entering the "terrible 2s."
"You'd never be able to tell that they were 23-weekers," Beth Titus says.
She credits their health and positive outcomes to the medical professionals who helped them, along with the March of Dimes, whose mission is to conduct top-level research into the causes and preventions of premature birth, and birth defects.
"My children are proof that donations toward research do make a difference," Titus adds.
She points to the artificial surfactant therapy - developed by a grant from the March of Dimes - both boys received to help advance their lung development, as well as the prenatal vitamins and folic acid she took during her pregnancy, as promoted by the agency to ward off birth defects.
March for Babies is the largest fundraiser for the March of Dimes, having raised more than $1.7 billion to date. This year's walk will take place in 1,100 communities in all 50 states, and organizers expect to draw more than 1 million walkers nationwide.
In Busse Woods, walkers will step off at 9 a.m. at Grove #5, located on Higgins Road, just west of Arlington Heights Road. They will head north, over the bridge that crosses Higgins Road and past the elk herd on the eastern edge of the preserve, before entering its wooded preserve. The trek is 3.1 miles.
<p class="factboxheadblack">If you go</p> <p class="News"><b>What:</b> 39th annual March for Babies, to benefit research advances for premature babies and those born with birth defects, by the March of Dimes </p> <p class="News"><b>When:</b> 8 a.m. registration before 9 a.m. step-off Sunday, April 26 </p> <p class="News"><b>Where:</b> Grove No. 5 at Busse Woods, located on Higgins Road, just west of Arlington Heights Road in Elk Grove Village </p> <p class="News"><b>Cost:</b> Free, but pledges accepted </p> <p class="News"><b>Information:</b> Call (312) 435-4007 or visit <a href="http://www.marchforbabies.org" target="new">marchforbabies.org</a> </p>