Supporting SIDS Education with Baby Steps!

Today I participated in my 4th SIDS walk with the Virginia SIDS Alliance. The purpose of the Virginia SIDS Alliance is to support families who have lost a child to Sudden Infant Death as well as to educate new families on how to avoid an infant death. Please visit their website here and follow them on Facebook here.

The 5k run and I mile mascot walk is one of two fund raisers the Alliance coordinates each year. For today’s walk, we were blessed with warm, sunny skies and lots of motivated runners and walkers.

Registration

People began showing up for registration at 7:30am for the 8:00am 5k run. There were approximately 100 runners involved with this event. And approximately 200 people participated in the 1 mile mascot walk. Here are some pictures from the starting line.

1 mile mascot walk

The “Baby Steps” run/walk was sponsored by One Life Fitness and Bon Secours Health Systems.

A great time was had by all. The kids were treated to visits from the Chick Fila cow, the Tabb Tiger (from one of our local high schools), Riptide (Norfolk Tides baseball mascot), Bonnie the Rabbit, Dora and most of all Spiderman!

Chick Fila Cow

Tabb Tiger

Riptide

Bonnie the Rabbitt

Dora and Spiderman

The kids also got to decorate items and get their faces painted, while the adults viewed memory quilts whose panels were donated by SIDS families.

Face painting

Memory Quilt

With all the fun today, we can’t forget the reason for today’s event…$3,000 was raised through donations and preregistration. Hundreds more was raised during the registration before the run/walk this morning. The Virginia SIDS Alliance uses this money to provide education to new parents and the community at large. A donation of just $50 can help purchase a crib for a family who otherwise may not be able to afford a safe place for their baby to sleep.

A lost angel

A reason to donate

I became involved with the Virginia SIDS Alliance 5 years ago to support my good friend Trudi. Trudi was blessed with a wonderful little boy who was taken much too early. Whether you have been personally affect by SIDS or not, it is truly the community’s responsibility to help prevent this unseen tragedy when at all possible. Please visit the Virginia SIDS Alliance website for more details on SIDS and ways that you can help educate others.

Denise and Trudi

As participants run and walk during the event, they pass signs remembering those have been lost. Here are pictures of some of those signs. Remembering the angels who watch over us:

In memory of Jamie Reynolds

In memory of Josiah Kendrick

In memory of Kyla Hope Minor-Kasier

In memory of Nazier Goodson

If you would like to donate to this worthy cause or know someone whose life has been affected by SIDS, please visit their website for more information. Together we can help keep babies safe!