Walk America 2007: Team Hallie & Olivia

I'm finally getting a chance to post about our experience at Walk America this past weekend. First, the weather was great. This cannot be taken for granted---we've had miserable weather much of the (alleged) spring here in Philly and finally, finally, something went in our favor. This made getting up at the right early hour of 6 am marginally tolerable (this seemed especially early since we had about 10 people over for an elaborate dinner the previous night. Even with using paper plates and grilling, a dinner party still leaves more dishes than I am eager to do). Anyway, we all got up early, donned our Team Hallie and Olivia t-shirts and headed off (in a three car caravan) for the Art Museum district. There we met up with the other 30 or so members of our team (thank goodness for cell phones!) that included two of Hallie's primary nurses, Grammy, Bubbe Jean (my mom), Grandma Sandy (Hallie's honorary grandmother and Aunt Laura's mother in law), Aunt Laura and all the kids, our friends the Zagurskys and Barags (we were walking not only for Hallie and Olivia but also for Maya and Elana), three of our neighbors and their kids, and numerous friends from all over Philly. It was quite a crowd and, sadly, my photos do not do it justice.



We took off at a nice clip but the team kind of dissolved not long into the walk--it turns out that nurses *are* quick on their feet. Some of us surged ahead, others of us lagged behind, and many of us took advantage of the sunshine during some well deserved breaks:



Others enjoyed the sun while striding along. Here's a nice pic of our friends Carmen and Vicky and their granddaughter Mia:



And here's a lovely shot of adorable Maya Zagursky looking ultra hip in her shades:



Hallie definitely needed her baby bans in this shot:



As I said, these pictures don't do the event justice. And most importantly, beyond walking for our health and to raise awareness about prematurity, we were walking to raise a lot of money to help save babies. And raise money we did: we ended up surpassing our (ever more ambitious) goal -- the tally so far is a whopping $4388. Way to go Team Hallie & Olivia. And hopefully we'll raise even more next year!