Unless this is your first time to my little blog, you all know that my daughter Madeline was born almost three months premature. And unless you just arrived on the Planet Earth, you know being that early isn’t good. Things were very grim at first – we were told many times she would die. Thankfully, she survived, thanks in large part to research funded by the March of Dimes.

The March of Dimes focuses on improving the health of premature babies, and thanks in part to their efforts babies like Maddie have a far greater chance of survival than they did just a few short years ago. There is still a lot that can be done, however, to give every premature baby a fighting chance to survive.

Mike and I are indebted to the March of Dimes, and have committed to do our part to help. The March of Dimes’ biggest event is March for Babies. We are very excited to again be a part of the March on April 25th in Los Angeles.

Alright. Let’s get to the meat of it.

enter to winI know times are hard right now, and I feel a bit icky soliciting donations when I know how important every dollar is. I wouldn’t do it if I didn’t think it was important. But every dollar helps, even if that’s all you have to spare. The good news? Your donation is tax deductible. The better news? Your donation enters you to win one of two awesome prizes I am giving away – an amazing Kodak ESP 5 All-In-One Printer or an awesome Kodak Easyshare 340 Digital Camera, thanks to the incredible people at Kodak and ScanMyPhotos.com. By giving a little bit, you get to feel great about helping babies and you could walk away with a sweet prize.

Basically, you’re buying virtual raffle tickets. For every dollar you donate, you get a raffle ticket. Donate one dollar? Get one raffle ticket. Donate twenty five dollars? You get twenty five raffle tickets. It’s the kind of math even I can do! To enter the contest, donate by following the link below, then leave me a comment telling me you donated.

If you can’t donate money, you can donate your social media. You can twitter this link, put it in your facebook status, stumble & positively review the post, link to it – whatever it takes to get the word out. Like last year, I am taking my ad revenue from now until the walk, matching it, and donating it to the March of Dimes – so the more people that see this post, the more money goes to babies in need. If you donate AND pass on the link in some way, you’ll get a another entry to win (just leave a comment describing how you passed on the link!).

The contest is open until February 28th at 11:59pm. The winner will be announced on March 1st, so do what you need to do before then! Hopefully I’ll have another contest with more cool prizes after that (do you hear that, PR Types with Cool Prizes?!).

If you’re an LA Peep and would like to walk with our team, March For Maddie, just click on the “Walk With Me” link on my March For Babies page. Walking is free and a great way to support us and the March of Dimes. I am on the Los Angeles Family Teams committee, so it would mean SO MUCH to me to have a big team marching in my daughter’s name – and she’ll be there, too!

No matter what, Mike and I very much appreciate the love and support you’ve all given us over the last two years. We hope you know we never could have made it through without all of you standing behind us.

To donate or join, please go to http://www.marchforbabies.com/marchformaddie

Have questions? Fire away.

In case you need a visual…
Madeline in the hospital, and Madeline now

Please help.

Hi There! The raffle is now closed, but I sincerely hope that you will still donate. Everyone who donates will get a small thank you from Maddie herself!