On Sunday, October 4th, we will be walking in the 9th annual Miracle Walk at Verona Park in Verona, NJ, to benefit the NICU at Saint Barnabas Medical Center. As you all know, our daughters, Madison and Melia, were born on June 5, 2009 - 11 weeks premature - weighing only 2lbs and 2lbs 12oz respectively. For 8 weeks, Maddie and Lia called the NICU at Saint Barnabas home, as did we. The care that they received was bar none. The doctors and nurses there are the reason that our little girls, our angels, our miracles, are alive and thriving today. We would like to ask you to participate and walk with us to celebrate all the NICU Miracle Babies that are with us, and that are on the way. I am asking that you join us, and the rest of our team, in our efforts. We have joined forces with our good friends, Brian and Angelica Gonor, who are also the parents of their own miracles - their two children were also born premature and were saved by the amazing team of doctors and nurses at the Saint Barnabas NICU.
The money raised is used to buy essential medical supplies and equipment needed to help save the lives of the over 1,200 infants that begin their lives in the NICU at Saint Barnabas Medical Center each year - the same type of supplies and equipment that helped save the lives of Madison and Melia. Premature babies cared for at the Saint Barnabas NICU have a very high survival rate and a very low disability rate compared to the national average. Although technology continues to improve in Neonatology, not every premature baby experiences such an optimal outcome. Our family and hundreds of other families realize that a need exists to raise money for the NICU to help advance medical technology and create the best possible medical and healing environment for babies and their parents. This NICU saved the lives of my children and I am forever indebted to them. You never truly know how important a cause is until it hits you close to your heart and home. This cause is not close to my heart, it is IN my heart. This is so very important to me and my family. I will be forever grateful to those of you who can particpate in the walk with us to help raise the money that is so important to saving the lives of so many premature babies.
This NICU and it's staff helped us go from this...
To this....
Enough said! Please support this cause for all the future babies that deserve the same exceptional care that Madison and Melia received!
Please register to walk with us on October 4th. The first step is to go to the Miracle Walk Website and register online to participate. To join my team directly, please click on my team page link below. If you are unable to walk, we understand - but please consider sponsoring us and making a donation to help us reach our fundraising goal (the hospital is a nonprofit organization and all donations are tax deductible).
To access the Miracle Walk website to obtain more information please click on the link below.
http://www.miraclewalk.com/
To access our team page, to join our team, register or sponsor us with a donation, please click on the link below. Our team name is Preemie Dream Team.
http://www.miraclewalk.com/site/TR/Events/Generalteam_id=6350&pg=team&fr_id=1060
If you plan to walk with us - which we'd LOVE for you to do, you'll need to register. To do this, clink on the "join team" link to the left of the page above where it lists our team members. Register yourself as an individual walker. Registration is free, but the site is designed for every walker to raise funds, so it automatically has a $150 goal listed as an individual fundraising goal. You DO NOT have to donate $150. You can donate any amount that you would like in the "gift amount" tab. You must leave the $150 goal in the "individual fundraising goal" tab in order for your registration to go through, but again, you are not responsible to make a $150 donation - however, if you would like to ask family, friends, co-workers and neighbors of your own to sponsor you as a member of our team to reach that goal, then you are more than welcome to do so!
Please click the link below for walk day specifics.
http://www.miraclewalk.com/site/PageServer?pagename=EventInfo#2
If you are unable to walk with us, but would like to make a donation, please click on the "make a gift" link that you will find underneath the Preemie Dream Team picture on the right side of the webpage.
We hope to see you there on October 4th! Thank you so much!
Love,
Mike, Amanda, Madison and Melia Marcino
