Annual Somerset Town Rummage Sales, Also LARGE FLEA MARKET UP-TOWN
of wabash county inc.
May 3rd & 4th 8:00AM-? May 1, 2013
www.thepaperofwabash.com
Proudly Serving Wabash County Since 1977
Vol. 36, No. 7
PO Box 603, Wabash, IN 46992 (260) 563-8326
March for Babies with the March of Dimes May 4
by Ashley Flynn features@thepaperofwabash.com This year the March of Dimes will celebrate 75 years of improving the health and lives of babies. The Wabash County annual March for Babies Walk will be held May 4, at Paradise Springs. The walk is approximately four miles. This event is the March of Dimes’ biggest fundraising event. Throughout the U.S., these walks have raised $2.6 billion since 1970. The March of Dimes Foundation was founded in 1938 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt with the goal of fighting polio, which at the time, was the biggest cause of infant death within their first year. Through research funded by the foundation, vaccines developed by Jonas Salk, MD and Albert Sabin, MD ended the polio epidemic in the United States making the March of Dimes the only organization to cure the disease they set out to fight. These same vaccines are still used today. Over the years, the organization has shifted its mission depending on needs of mothers and their babies. Past accomplishments include newborn screenings, newborn intensive care units, surfactant therapy (helps preemies’ lungs expand), educating mothers about the benefits of folic acids (helps prevent against neural tube defects) and today’s mission of preventing premature births. In Indiana, 11.6 percent (approximately 1 in 8) babies are born premature. That’s two percent higher than the goal. Worldwide, 15 million babies are born too soon each year, and approximately one million die of premature related problems. The March of Dimes current goal is to lower the United State’s preemie rate to 9.6 percent by 2020. “They’re very proactive. They’re trying to prevent problems. They always set goals and try to reach it,” said Pat Vanlandingham, Wabash County Walk for Babies chairman. According to the Center of Disease Control and Prevention, more babies die from preterm related problems than anything else. A baby is considered premature if they are born three weeks before their due date, or anytime before 37 weeks. The March of Dimes website states, “About half of premature births result from spontaneous preterm labor, the causes of which are unknown.” Although there are still a lot of unanswered questions, they do know that premature birth can lead to a lot of health problems throughout life, and some women are more at risk to go into preterm labor than others. Teenage pregnancies and smoking during pregnancy are two of the most obvious reasons.” “We work to educate mothers on how to have a healthy pregnancy,” said Vanlandingham. “Here in Wabash County, agencies can apply for a grant from the March of Dimes, but we haven’t had a lot of agencies take advantage of that,” she said. A few years ago, Smoke Free Wabash applied and received a grant for literature to give pregnant women to help them learn about not smoking during pregnancy and the dangers of that. To receive a grant, agencies must have (continued on page 5)
WABASH COUNTY’S MARCH OF DIMES has raised over a quarter of a million dollars in their March for Babies walks since 1994. The current local committee is Jane Barlow, Sandy Craft, Dawn Hamm, Tina Carroll, Stacey Bone, Melissa Vaughn, and Pat Vanlandingham as chairman. This year’s walk will be held May 4. (photo provided)
Wabash High School teams with local fire and police departments to prevent drinking and driving WABASH by Emily Armentrout HIGH SCHOOL STUOn April 26, with their prom DENTS PARTICIPATED IN a demonapproaching, Wabash High School stration to help prevent drinking and driving on prom teamed up with the local fire and police night. Pictured are Logan McDonald and Chloe Mullet during the department, along with the Samaritan demonstration, depicting students who were badly injured in a wreck. This demonhelicopter from Parkview Fort Wayne, stration was put on by the Wabash Police Department, the Wabash Fire Department to depict a crash scene for the juniors and the Samaritan helicopter from Parkview. (photo by Emily Armentrout) and seniors at Wabash High School. The accident was supposed to be caused the car after they used the jaws of life to car was laying on its roof, with them by drinking and driving on prom night. remove the passenger side door. It was both half out of the vehicle. Mullet had “It’s going to make a great impresportrayed that she was taken to the a head wound, and several large lacerasion on the kids. We’ve had parents tions on one of her arms. After she was hospital in an ambulance. come to watch and it has really impactLogan McDonald and Chloe removed from the vehicle, she was ed them,” said Carl Hall, an inspector Mullett were in the sec- placed into the Samaritan helicopter, for the Wabash Fire Department. ond vehicle. and would have been headed to Fort Hall was the narrator for this event. Their Wayne, had this been a real accident. He explained what was happening to Hall explained that one of the last the students while the teams were (continued on page 5) working on their fellow classmates. The students participating were Cassie Boone, Cooper Bostwick, Logan McDonald, and Chloe Mullet. Though this was a drill, the responding teams ran this scenario as realistically as they could, so the students would get a real look at how an accident scene would play out. “It’s good training for the fire and police department. They are running this as a real accident,” Hall told The Paper of Wabash. The scenario portrayed that Bostwick had been drinking and driving, and Boone was in his car with him. Bostwick sustained a head injury that was treated in the field, and then CASSIE was given a field sobriety test, BOONE GETS FROM A which he failed. He was hand- REMOVED cuffed and placed into a police VEHICLE after the use of jaws of life car. Boone also sustained a head during the demonstration at Wabash High injury along with an amputated School to help prevent drinking and driving after prom. hand. She was removed from (photo by Emily Armentrout)