March for Babies auction held
By Scott Mitchell Johnson
Staff Writer
PRESQUE ISLE — The 2013 March for Babies campaign kicked off Dec. 1 at the Aroostook Centre Mall with a holiday auction.
JENNIFER PLANTE 
displays a toy tractor that was one of the many items up for bid during the Dec. 1 holiday auction that benefited the 2013 March for Babies campaign. With Plante is auctioneer Bert Winslow, who volunteered his time to the auction. The event raised $1,640.50.
“Our auction pulled in $1,640.50,” said Katie Bartley, co-chair of the Central Aroostook Steering Committee for the March of Dimes. “I was hoping for at least $500 … my biggest goal was $1,000, so this far exceeded my expectations.
“We’ve done an auction in the past in conjunction with our walk, but if people from the general public didn’t come to the walk, they didn’t know about the auction,” she said. “This year we decided to separate the two fundraisers and create awareness year-round.”
JANET DOAK, left, and Abby Gagnon, members of the Central Aroostook Steering Committee for the March of Dimes, helped register community members who attended the Dec. 1 holiday auction which kicked off the 2013 March for Babies campaign. 
The auction was held at the Aroostook Centre Mall.
The March of Dimes is a non-profit organization that works to improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth and infant mortality.
Committee members contacted local merchants who generously donated items for the auction.
“We also outreached to the Boston Red Sox and received an autographed baseball by starting pitcher Clay Buchholz, as well as two autographed photos of Boston Celtic Brandon Bass,” said Bartley. “We tried to look at what other auctions have done locally and learn from them.”
Proceeds will go back to the state office in Scarborough.
“Then they’ll filter it out to things like grants and local hospitals,” said Bartley, noting that Maine Medical Center has a family unit that helps parents of children that are born in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).
The March of Dimes is very near and dear to Bartley’s heart.
“I, myself, have had five premature children,” she said. “Our first son, who passed away after 52 days, was born 13 weeks premature. He never came home. He lived in the NICU in Bangor. My daughter was born five weeks premature, my twin sons were born six weeks premature, and my last son was born five weeks premature.
“It never gets easier, but you know what to expect,” said Bartley, who developed preeclampsia with HELLP syndrome with each of her pregnancies. “I knew after my first pregnancy that probably all of my kids after that were going to be premature … that I was not able to carry all of my kids to full term. You know what the numbers are supposed to look like in your blood work and what your blood pressure is supposed to be. You’re never prepared for it, but you know what to expect.”
According to the March of Dimes website, a premature baby is one who is born too early, before 37 completed weeks of pregnancy. Premature babies can have more health problems and may need to stay in the hospital longer than babies born later, and more than half a million babies are born prematurely each year in the United States.
Bartley and her husband, Chad, have been involved with the March of Dimes since 2007.
“We got involved after the passing of our first son,” she said, “and became aware of how the March of Dimes research helps premature babies and their families. We wanted the money people donated in his name to go to an organization that helped premature babies so we got involved with the March of Dimes and have been involved ever since.”
The local March of Dimes walk will be held Saturday, May 11. Last year’s walk raised over $22,000.
For more information about the March of Dimes, log onto www.marchofdimes.org.
