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Young ambassadors represent success
Maria and Olivia Reichard of Youngstown are Mahoning Valley 2010 MOD ambassadors.
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ALL SMILES: March of Dimes 2010 national ambassador, Joshua Hoffman of Weston, Fla., got some pointers from his mother, Melanie, on the speech he was about to deliver Tuesday to the MOD Mahoning Valley March for Babies Leadership Luncheon.
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1 -year-old Olivia Reichard of Youngstown is one of the 2010 MOD Mahoning Valley ambassadors.
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SPECIAL MOMENT: Olivia Reichard of Youngstown gets a hug from Scott Sterneckert, director of the MOD’s North East Ohio Division. Olivia and her sister, Maria, are the 2010 MOD Mahoning Valley ambassadors.
BOARDMAN — “I love being the 2010 national ambassador for the March of Dimes because I want to fight for preemies,” said 7-year-old Joshua Hoffman.
“I don’t want any more babies born like me. Thanks to the March of Dimes, I’m alive,” Joshua said Tuesday at the Mahoning Valley March of Dimes Leadership Luncheon at Antone’s Banquet Centre.
Preemies are babies born before full-term pregnancy, which is around 40 weeks.
Joshua, of Weston, Fla., was born at 23 weeks and weighed 1 pound 11 ounces. He spent more than three months in a neonatal intensive-care unit (NICU), and his parents, Melanie and Lee Hoffman, were told he might never walk, talk, see or hear.
Joshua has problems associated with his premature birth. He is blind in his right eye. Besides his mother, he was accompanied here by his grandmother, Joyce Bloom of Cleveland, and his younger brother, Alex, 4.
Joshua and Sara Stankich Reichard of Youngstown also credit March of Dimes research for helping to save the lives of their daughters, Maria and Olivia, who are Mahoning Valley 2010 MOD ambassadors.
Maria, 4 1‚Ñ2, was born at 27 weeks Aug. 10, 2005, and spent two months in the NICU at St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown and after that, time in the hospital’s special-care nursery.
“When I was taken to the hospital, it was discovered that my cervix was dilating. The doctors and nurses were able to postpone the delivery for two days, during which time I received two doses of the steroid Dexamethasone, which greatly improved Maria’s chances of having normal lung and brain development,” said Mrs. Reichard, a 2000 graduate of Youngstown Christian School. Her husband grew up in Greenville, Pa.
“Thankfully, Maria has had no major health issues and has developed not only on schedule, but in some aspects of cognitive development, has excelled,” she said.
Olivia was born March 6, 2008, at 36 weeks with a congenital heart defect called transposition of the great vessels, in which the aorta and pulmonary artery are switched. She underwent surgery a couple of weeks later and has since made a full recovery.
“Today, Olivia is a healthy toddler, full of life, curiosity and mischief. Her recovery was so quick and complete that one of her doctors said they were studying her case to see what went right,” Mrs. Reichard said.
Tuesday’s event was to raise awareness about the annual March of Dimes Mahoning Valley March for Babies, which is May 16 at Austintown Township Park. The 2010 financial goal is $125,000, said Corey Mayle, event chairman.
He said individuals, families, organizations and businesses are forming teams to participate in the May walk, which includes 4-mile and 1-mile routes, food, entertainment and Kids Zone activities for children age 10 and younger. For information on forming teams, contact the March of Dimes in Cleveland at (216) 643-3330.
This past year has been hard for everybody. But despite that, organized labor has stepped up to help the March of Dimes and United Way, said Jim Graham, president of United Auto Workers of American Local 1112 at the Lordstown General Motors Complex and MOD Mahoning Valley honorary chairman of labor.
alcorn@vindy.com