Generous area residents raised thousands of dollars to support mothers and newborns and help prevent premature births at a charity auction event marking the 80th anniversary of the March of Dimes.
About 200 people attended Thursday night’s March of Dimes Signature Chefs Auction at the Factory 12 Event Loft in Columbus. Participants donated $100 per plate to sample chef specialties from area restaurants and bid on elaborate vacation packages, dinner and catering opportunities. Proceeds will be used to help babies get the best possible start in life.
Guests were wowed by the food selections, with many going back for seconds to the Upland Columbus Pump House offering of shrimp and grits — made with Tasso gravy, smoked bacon, peppers, red onion and creamy white grits.
“This is low-country cuisine,” said Chad Seacrest, executive chef at the Columbus downtown restaurant. “I used to work in Charleston and they have shrimp and grits 100 different ways. I changed it up a little bit.”
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Nearby, Gramz Bakery in Columbus was offering its signature caramel bourbon mousse with pear sauce, along with lemon blackberry cake, apple crisp and pumpkin roll.
Asked how long it takes to put together a large dessert spread for hundreds of people, Gramz general manager Rachelle Cole laughed and said, “We just found out about it yesterday, so I guess 24 hours.”
In addition to providing food, some of the chefs offered prize packages to be auctioned off to raise even more money for the March of Dimes.
Catering by Karr offered a roof-top downtown dinner party for six, with a four-course meal served by the catering staff.
Blackerby’s Hangar 5 offered a private dinner at the Columbus Municipal Airport for two with a full view of the runway.
Getaways to Barbados, Antigua and Panama were also auctioned to the crowd, whose bidding numbers were on the back of their programs.
Cummins Hospitality is donating one meal per week to all Turning Point residents for two months after a bidder offered $350 to be named as the sponsor of the meals.
Tom Lutes of Columbus was a competitor in the Wii bowling contest at the event, with the highest scoring player winning a 2019 VIP table for next year’s gala.
Admitting he hadn’t bowled in a while, Lutes joked that he wanted to change his score and try again. He was representing the Columbus Young Professionals and said it was important to support a great charitable event for a good cause.
Organization’s impact
The 80-year-old March of Dimes has contributed to much of the research and best practices in place today to help premature infants and try to prevent prematurity in the future, said Derek Richey, March of Dimes development manager who organized the event with his staff and a board of local volunteers.
Before the event started, it had already gathered $12,000 in donations to benefit March of Dimes. Richey said the organization was hoping to reach $50,000 by the end of the evening. Similar events are held each year in Indianapolis and Fort Wayne.
“Premature births are still up across the state, especially in low-income communities around Indiana,” Richey said. “We’ve got to do better.”
The March of Dimes sponsors numerous smoking-cessation programs for low-income residents and moms across the state, and much of the money being raised at events such as the Signature Chef’s Auction go to supporting that programming, he said.
An additional percentage goes to ongoing research into the causes of premature birth and strategies to prevent it, he said.
“You know the heel prick test that newborns receive? March of Dimes came up with that,” Richey said. “We’re working on a blood test that could help us predict with 90 percent accuracy who might have a premature birth. That’s the kind of things that this money is supporting.”
Dick Boyce of Columbus, who directs the ColumBIKE program and was on the planning board for the event, said his work for the March of Dimes represents the “rest of the story” about his life, the organization and how March of Dimes has helped families over the decades.
“Derek came to speak to Kiwanis and I knew that this was part of my history,” Boyce said. “In 1952, I had polio. The mission has changed, but there’s still a link there.”
The March of Dimes began with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s personal struggle with polio, which led to the creation of the National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, according to the organization. Now known as the March of Dimes, the organization led the way in vaccine research to eradicate polio in the United States, and later shifted to initiatives about folic acid, newborn screening and other therapies, according to the organization.
Indiana receives a “C” ranking from the March of Dimes on its rate of premature births, which has dropped slightly from 2007’s rate of 10.9 percent of live births being preterm to its current rate of 9.8 percent reported in 2017, according the organization. The U.S. rate in 2017 for preterm births was 9.93 percent.
Roger Brinkman of Columbus, also on the organizing committee, said the commitment to helping babies and their families runs deep among those who have supported the March of Dimes fundraiser for the past 13 to 14 years in Columbus.
“Kids — what can be closer to your heart?” he asked. “We were fortunate to have two beautiful babies who were born healthy. Derek works very heard every year to bring together people to help us grow support bit by bit.”
Among the most generous supporters to the cause were employees from three companies who conducted fundraisers for the March of Dimes and received special awards for their efforts.
Cummins Inc. employees raised $19,000 through various events in the company’s area plants, with the award accepted by Joyce Howard of Cummins.
The Walmart Distribution Center in Seymour was honored for an $8,000 donation raised through its Bowling for Babies event. And Elwood Staffing in Columbus was honored for its $8,000 donation from employees, with March of Dimes organizers saying the company has been a long-time and consistent supporter for the organization.
“The support from the Columbus community has been fantastic,” Richey said.
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To learn more about the March of Dimes or to make a donation, visit marchofdimes.org.
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