The History.
The March Of Dimes was founded by President Roosevelt in 1938 with it's mission of fighting Polio - a disease which Roosevelt himself had. In the late 1950's the March Of Dimes' mission advanced onto dealing with birth defects. The first March Of Dimes walk-a-thon was in 1970. Participants would ask neighbors, friends, family and others to sponsor them so much per kilometer walked in a predetermined distance. The rate times the distance would be what was raised toward funding research for a cure birth defects and other infant health issues. After the walk, the participants would collect the pledges from the sponsors.

It was in 1978, when was a 7th grader when a March Of Dimes representative came to my school and showed us a film and told us about the purpose of the March Of Dimes walk-a-thon. This would be the first on ten years in which I would participate and I would complete the entire walk in about four and a half hours. I know that in the 8th grade I started at 8am and arrived back the starting point at 12:30.
The walk was 32 kilometers(20 miles) and the suggested per kilometer rate was ten cents. Participants who completed the walk would raise $3.20 at a ten cent rate per kilometer. At the starting point, every walker was given a card with the route and a list of the checkpoints where the card would be stamped by a March Of Dimes worker and would serve as proof of kilometers walked. Should a walker "Poop out" and not be able to finish the route, the exhausted participant would be picked up by a "Poop-out bus" at the checkpoint in which they made it to. If it rained on W-day the walk would be shortened to 8K (5 miles) and the participant would be credited 4 times distance at each checkpoint.
In 1982 or 1983, I don't remember but that day was a rainer and the walk was short...to short I did not find that very fun. 1987 or 1988 would mark my last time walking. I did not plan on no longer walking I just did not do it anymore. That was at the age of 23. In 1991 and 1992, I would do two walk-a-thons for a church I was a member of. One was for Missions to Buenos Aires and the other was to raise money for an organization that helped blind people learn to live normal lives.
Walkamerica 2005. Well, destiny calls! I saw a poster for Walkamerica on April 29th and I thought to myself that I ought to do it. It really felt good to do this back when I was a kid. It was a chance to give to help the less fortunate and it was a fun experience as well. I did not realize that the walk was on April 30th! Thank God for the internet! The internet!!!!! Yeah!! I was able to download a sponsor sheet and even create a web page in which people could go to and sponsor me (This is something to think about for next year!) due to lack of time, I sponsored myself.
It's been seventeen years since I had last participated. At forty, I was gonna do it again! The starting point was at Civic Center park which was a five minute walk from my home.
Somethings have changed since I last walked. Firstly the walks are shorter. The one I walked was 6.2 miles. Forget per kilometer or per mile pledges, now it's simply a flat rate donation. There are advantages to a flat donation, the sponsor could pay the walker up-front thus eliminating having to collect it afterward. Furthermore, it does not matter how much the participant walks, just that they did. As for the shorter distances, that can be a bummer for an old-schooler like me, however; it may make for more participants and so everybody can complete the walk. I noticed that people stayed in groups more so this time than in the walks I did in the past where it seemed that at some points I may have been walking alone as some people rested or slowed down. The social aspect was not lost in this walk.