 I guess just to open things up, we'd like to talk a little bit about the mission statement for March of Dimes and what March of Dimes does. March of Dimes leads the fight for the health of all moms and babies. We believe in a world where every mom and every baby is healthy regardless of economics, where they live, anything. We believe every mom and every baby should be healthy. Oh, that's a great cause, I know God about it. Can we talk a little bit about, I know obviously we're in unique times these days with this current situation with COVID-19 and I know that March of Dimes has been around quite a long time. In fact, you had mentioned to me that this is your 50th year. Would you like to talk a little bit about that? Well March of Dimes has actually been around for 82 years. This year was going to be the 50th anniversary of our fundraising walk. We were the first organization to start doing fundraising walks and March for Babies was supposed to happen on a walk who last Saturday, but of course because of COVID-19 we can no longer gather in large groups, so it is our 50th anniversary of our fundraising walk. So we're going virtual and on May 15th we're going to do, I think it's going to be done through Facebook Live, we're going to do a get together with all our supporters across the country to celebrate March for Babies, our 50th anniversary and our families and all the work we do in our communities. That sounds amazing, you know when we talked a little bit before and that's one of the things I found very fascinating is we all know March of Dimes as this large national agency that provides these services for mothers and their babies, but you also do a lot here locally and I'd like you to talk a little bit about that. Sure, on a local level we have one of the things that I love is our program at Kapiolani Hospital. We have a March of Dimes staff person who actually works with the NICU there and when those wonderful doctors and nurses are taking care of those fragile little babies the parents are pretty fragile as well and so our March of Dimes staff person is there to support the families. We do a lot of different things for them, we do education hours, we do bedside support, we have fun activities for the families and during this time of COVID they have to be so careful at the hospitals that now only one parent is allowed to stay in the NICU with their baby and our March of Dimes staff person Melissa is no longer allowed to go into the hospital so we've been trying to find as many ways as we can how to help continue to help these families. They're pretty isolated when you're in your baby's room all alone, you know, day in and day out so we've been providing food for them, we've had people making us cloth face masks for the parents, I managed to purchase a bunch of March of Dimes hand sanitizers that we've gotten to them, we've put together some activities that they can do while they're sitting in their room, we've gotten donations from some of our supporters, we've got baby products that we're going to be supplying to them, we've got books and then for the NICU staff we're also supplying snacks and food but Melissa went to Eolani school and they were making those cloth face masks so she's going to those and she's donating them to the NICU staff there which is continuing to do as much as we can, March of Dimes jumped on this right away and we knew we weren't going to be able to see their in person to support the family so they put together a series of education hours that the NICU parents can access via, I think they're doing a Facebook live so we've got these education hours we're going to be supplying since we can't do them in person, we're going to be doing them through Facebook live for the NICU families and any NICU family can participate that in them. We also have general Facebook lives that we're doing that can anybody can join in as well so we're working on a lot of different ways to continue to help these families and to be their support them in any way we can. That's really amazing. When you talk about education, what type of education are you providing for the families? You know some of our, we always have a session called getting ready to take your baby home. There's a lot of information that they need to know and there's a lot of things they need to do before they can leave the hospital. We have classes on breastfeeding, we have classes on caring for yourself when you're in the NICU, classes on how to care for your baby when your baby is in the NICU. Just quite a variety of classes that we do and we do fun stuff. We do scrapbooking where we get pictures of their babies and we do scrapbooking with them. We've done baby showers because a lot of these moms they have their babies so early they never got to have their baby shower so we'll do baby showers for them. We do holiday parties. So we try to give them some normalcy and some distraction and do some fun things with them. That's so great. You know at a time like that I know it's a very stressful time for the family because they're dealing with a situation that not every family has to go through. So I would imagine that there's some form of emotional support there and talking them through what what's happening and how your organization is going to be there for them in order to sort of see them through this this process. Yeah because of HIPAA laws we had to be very careful on how we proceed. So March of Dimes has worked with Zoom to find ways to have really good security so and we just kind of got that taken care of and so now our Melissa, our NICU specialist will be able to do Zoom sessions with these families and and I know the hospital has great social workers there to help the families and you know they need a lot of support. You know having a new baby is supposed to be the most exciting thing that that happens in your life and but when you have a baby that's born premature you know I can speak for myself. I've been with the March of Dimes for 25 years. That's amazing. Yeah I've been I've been in that NICU many times with families but about five years ago my grandson was born premature and I was there in the delivery room when the doctors were bagging him getting him to breathe he was born seven weeks early and then down in the NICU you can see from the screen the tubes and the wires and even though I've been in there so many times it just didn't prepare me for the feeling that emerged especially a feeling of helplessness you know you expect your grandchild or baby to be born and they're putting your arms and you're in the hospital a couple days and you take them home and you got this you know a healthy seven eight pound baby you know but when a baby Johnny was born that's four and a half pounds so he was a little guy so you know we see babies that are born a pound a pound and a half and they're just they're just your little fighters Johnny spent a month in the NICU but that feeling of helplessness is something no new parents should ever feel when they're when they're seeing their new baby or their new grandchild and it was it was really I don't know it's hard to explain the feeling of helplessness when you're looking at this in this little life so you know that that made me even more committed to you know the fight that we have to in prematurity March of Dimes is doing research we have five prematurity research centers in the United States and one in London over 10 percent of babies are born premature one in ten in Hawaii it's about 10.3 percent of babies born premature here and that that's equates to oh around 1800 babies that are being born premature in Hawaii and you know and some people think oh well the babies just small they need to you know just gain some weight and grow but you know that's not that's not the case you know their lungs are under developed you know they can have so many different health problems and the very very tiny micro premies they're they're just miracles but sadly not all babies do survive you know 90 percent of premies used to die but now more than 70 percent survive because of the March of Dimes March of Dimes started newborn intensive care unit and that was back around in the I guess around 1970 or so we started newborn intensive care units across the country to care for babies that are born with birth defects were born premature and we help provide the funding that starts the first one at Kapiolani and we are one of our researchers developed a treatment called surfactant therapy and what that is when the last few weeks of pregnancy the babies lungs developed excuse me this substance called the factant which helps their lungs be able to expand so they can breathe well when they're born premature that substance isn't in there so well one of our researchers developed a way to breathe in where they can get first surfactant into the baby's lungs so they can intimate the baby needs and help them start breathing and some of these things you know I say thousands of babies of light lives every year and it's just so important that we find out the causes of why this happens you know most most of these moms were not at high-risk and their doctor you know they they take their vitamins they go visit their doctor every month and their doctors going wow you're doing great babies doing great see you next month and then all of a sudden the doctors getting a call from the hospital saying hey we have a patient up years here and it's a patient they didn't expect to see for one or two months so the research to find out why we're having premature babies is so important and one of our research centers recently developed a blood test that with 85% accuracy it can tell if a mom is going to have a premature baby doctors are predicting that before so we're working from to get that through trials and then out out to the doctor so it's something a treatment they'll be able to use in the near future with hope well that's so great I'm so thankful that you shared that I mean I don't think most of our listeners really fully understand all the stuff that goes on in the background at March of Dimes and the research and development of ways to detect so that you have a better chance of ensuring that premature baby isn't born right so that's fantastic do anything else besides premature babies that that March of Dimes works on one of the things we're very concerned about is and this is a startling fact March the United States is the most dangerous developed country in the world to have a baby yeah it's absolutely startling and we have a high maternal mortality and morbidity rate we have a mom who died from pregnancy or birth related complications every 12 hours in the United States it's it's mind boggling so that's just something March of Dimes is really just lately are looking more into of why is this happening it shouldn't be like that in the United States we should not be the worst developed country in the world perhaps that's a true or that's the truth I mean so are you guys looking at the whole process and saying what's going on here is what can we do to change that definitely definitely a lot of you know and women of color are a higher percentage of birth mortality and morbidity than Caucasians yeah so I don't know okay I honestly can't tell you but that is something we are looking into some of it is disparities of course you know some access to care to doctors access to a hospital so much much of it well I don't know about much of it but some of it can be related to access to care you know we talked a little bit about how March of Dimes receives their funding and I'd like you to talk a little bit about how that's funded and where the majority of your money does come from well the majority of our money does come from our walk event which as you know you know we had to make it go virtual so where we've come up with ways for people to still participate but but still stay home and be safe we've got we've partnered with charity miles so people can go to the March of Dimes website they can download the charity miles app and they can count their steps and they can put a goal of how many miles they walk want to walk by a certain amount of time and let their family and friends know that they are going to be you know stepping up for babies and people can donate per mile you know a quarter mile 50 cents a mile a dollar a mile whatever and and then by on May 15th you know when they reach their goal hopefully everybody reaches their goal then people can donate whatever they pledged per mile and the funny thing about this is when March of Dimes first started doing their walk it was a pledge per mile walk and they would walk 25 26 miles and they would get their card stamps every mile along the way and then bring it back to the people who pledged to them and say okay I want 25 miles and then they would collect the money so kind of like going back to our beginnings but in a little bit of a different way well that's fantastic you know I shared a story with you about my involvement with the March of Dimes and it was actually I've long before you and I ever crossed paths I was involving I used to own my own insurance agency in Vancouver Washington and I would involve my staff and Farmers Insurance Agency and you had indicated that farmers at the time was a big supporter right no so at that time I was very intrigued and involved and to that point we vigorously raised money every year for the cause and to this day I still feel very connected to it and even after I sold my agency there's some of the staff members that were with us to this day continue to do the walk every year and raise money for the cause and so I feel very good to know that there are people that somehow continue to spawn support for this organization which I really honestly know do just really amazing things and not just for for few but you do the good that you do is really for everyone yeah thank you I'm so glad that you have a back history with us and and now you're in Hawaii and and your support is still continuing so we really appreciate that no it's um it's it's of all the places in the world that I've had the privilege to live Hawaii is one of the most generous kind and giving communities that I've ever been privileged to be involved with so I'm really happy to be here really happy to help in any way that I can and and that and I think you probably have found it very welcoming environment as well oh yeah it's so you would also indicated that you don't just do work here on a walk you you actually reach out to the other islands and take care of the entire state like to speak to that I yeah you know because a baby born premature on a neighbor island it's flown over here to Oahu and they they're at Kapiolani so we have a lot of neighbor island families and you know many times in fact the majority of the time when a baby's born premature they're they're rushed over on my transport by air transport and of course the mom just delivered so she can't jump on the plane with her baby so generally the dad will jump on the plane with the baby flies over here you know totally unexpected gets here has nothing so you know we have on these little kids we've put together for when they arrive you know they've got something to help them get started and and you know we'll hook them up with the social workers to make sure you know they can maybe stay at the Ronald McDonald house we supply them with toiletries and snacks and sometimes they come in the middle of the night so we just have we just have these kits ready to go for when a neighbor island family comes in and you know they're there it's really especially hard for the neighbor island families because if their baby it's going to be in the nicks a long time and they work or they have a home sometimes they fly back and forth and can't be here the whole time or sometimes maybe you know once the mom gets there she'll stay here but the dad will go home so it's really important that we are there with those families and they've they've got somebody to talk to and you know one of the things we do with you know copy aligning is a beautiful new NICU and now all the parents all the babies are in a private room so the parent can be in a private room with their baby but it's lost some of the connections with other parents so we do these get-together so the parents can meet each other and support each other because it's it really is helpful to know you're not in this alone you've got somebody right next to you that understands what you're going through and so we try to put these get-togethers for these families so that they can talk to each other and just have that kind of support as well and we also will bring in parents who have been through this and and the parents going through it love having a parent who has been through it and understands them somebody they can talk to as well that's not going through it anymore but totally gets it and you know to support them so we bring these type of groups together to help them well that's that's amazing I mean I've never gone through that but I have two beautiful granddaughters whom I'm absolutely spitting by and I just can't imagine going through a process with them and every time I see them and they're so happy and healthy and running around and just excited and having fun this is a good opportunity to to be grateful and to reach out and help other families that are maybe not as fortunate in that respect but then giving them every opportunity if you will to to help them their family and this newborn child get to that place in their lives right I think that's absolutely amazing so what has kept you you've been with them for 25 years that's amazing what I mean that's that's remarkable so let's talk about that a little bit I mean wow what has kept you going all these years well you know for one thing it's the families meeting reading those families and and seeing the challenges they face and when they like like I said we have these are NICU family support coordinators and so when they tell us oh my gosh that person it was like an angel entering my room you know and knowing that we were able to help these families is so meaningful and my volunteers I've got the most amazing volunteers you know Dave Kennedy is my board chair John Henry Felix has been a March of Dimes volunteer since he was a little boy in 1938 going door-to-door with his mother collecting dimes and he still contributes he still sits on our board he he get he and doctors say you came together and gave a major gift to help support our pre maturity research centers because they know how important the research is Howard Howard Lee he was so excited to be chairing our 50th anniversary of our walk this year and unfortunately as you know we know we're not going to be getting together at Coppulani Park with thousands of people to celebrate that but Howard's been amazing and the committee he put together I just I have so many people that that if I have a problem if I need help on something I pick up the phone and there's no hesitation you know so these volunteers that that are supporting of us supportive of us the families we help it just it you know it just sounds it's wonderful it's a great it's a great way to work when you've got people like that that participate in everything to do that's amazing you know one of the things that we talked a little bit about was so do your funding and where the money from that comes from so is there government support for that no all our you know our walk raises more than 60% of our money that's a big percentage yes percentage and in Hawaii we've got a couple other special events we do we do an event where we honor somebody in the community and this year for our 25th anniversary of honoring people in our community we are going to focus on mom and we are our honoring Cheryl Sanders Dickerson her son Kelly Sanders is is the vice president I think his title is now vice president of Highgate which oversees seven hotels here in Hawaii and one of them is a low-heelani and his so Kelly was born premature and so his mom Cheryl has been a great supporter of the March of Dimes and many organizations in the community and she's she's a somebody who understands what it's like to have premature baby so we're honoring Cheryl and we're honoring dr. Angela Pratt dr. Pratt is OBGYN she takes care of mom's and every day and so she's and she's a board member of the March of Dimes and the donors she she helped provide the funding for us to start a program at Kapiolana hospital called supportive pregnancy care and what it is it's a group prenatal care and we were going to be starting at early this year but now with now that we can't get together in groups we'll probably start it later in the year but March of Dimes also stepped up for that because we already have some supportive pregnancy care groups around the country and so they developed a way to bring them together still and do their education hours virtually on Zoom so that that will continue that's fantastic you know one of the things that I think a lot of people who would like to get involved and don't really know how to go about that how would what would you suggest they do because obviously you have different echelons of need and the more volunteers you have obviously the more outreach that you can have and so what would somebody do if they wanted to volunteer they can call our office at 973 2155 and we can we can talk to them about what their interests are and we can find a place to fit them in you know much of our volunteers are usually for our events but and there's other ways they can volunteer they can volunteer with our NICU specialists and help coordinate activities for the families so that's a fun way to volunteer and a lot of people love doing that because they love getting to meet these families and knowing they have a state they can see who they're supporting and so that's another way people can volunteer with us that's great so you know I just want to wrap things up here we've come to the end of our show and I I can't thank you enough for taking time out of your busy schedule to speak to us today and be a part of the show and I guess we'll have some information at the end of the show that tells people how to how to get involved how to get in touch and and hopefully we'll have you on the show again one time so I appreciate it so thank you thank you so much friend and I really appreciate you giving us this opportunity to share what we do with the March of Dines and thank you it was really wonderful thank you I appreciate it as well have a terrific day you too thank you stay safe