Marching for Miracles

The March of Dimes Walk helps make miracles possible for keiki like the daughter of Bob Ingersoll. In the United States one of every eight babies is born prematurely and, unfortunately for Longs vice president/general manager of Hawaii operations Bob Ingersoll, he and his wife drew the short straw when their daughter Ashley was born eight weeks premature in 1989.

Wednesday - April 22, 2009
By Chad Pata
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other moms make it through their own travails.

It is stories such as Lu’s that led Ingersoll to take on first the co-chair and

now the chairman’s position with the March for Babies, and it should not be understated the importance of Longs to the success of this fundraiser.

“Longs’ affiliation has had a huge impact. Last year we had the biggest number of people ever, almost 3,000,” says Hernandez, who has been with MOD for 13 years.

“What Longs does at the finish line, it is really fantastic, with the arch and all the giveaways from their vendors.”

Longs does more than just raise money for race day. In the store now you can find donation cards by the cashiers, and specially marked items like School Kine Cookies and MOD blinkies, whose profits go to aid the charity as well.

After last year’s success, Ingersoll was excited for this year, but was a bit apprehensive when Longs was bought out by CVS in October of last year, not knowing if they would have the same phil-anthropic goals that he had. But his fears were soon allayed.

“Our affiliations with March of Dimes fits in very well with CVS’s overall charity mantra, which is ‘All Kids Can,’” says Ingersoll. “So when I told them about my desire to continue on with my affiliation with March of Dimes, they were very supportive of it.”

Now with the CVS blessing, the march will take place this Saturday, with an opening invocation by Lt. Gov. Duke Aiona at 7 a.m. and the march beginning by the Kapiolani Park Bandstand down Kalakaua Avenue at about 7:30.

Last year there were about 64,000 contributors for the 3,000 marchers, with about 90 percent of them being team walkers, local businesses and churches putting together teams, with all of them wearing matching T-shirts to show solidarity.

After the march, there are long rows of product giveaways from Longs’ suppliers at the finish line. There are no food booths, but everyone is encouraged to bring their hibachi and a blanket to enjoy live entertainment for the adults and a keiki carnival for the kids. There will be inflatable jumpers, slides and obstacle courses, as well as free ice cream and popcorn for the little ones.

Registration can be done either on site on the day of the walk or at marchforbabies.org. On the site, you can start a team, and MOD will give you your own web page, where you can direct people to make donations online.

The top fundraiser this year will receive a Neighbor Island trip, but truly the real prize is in knowing all the infants you are helping. And while Ingersoll has spent countless hours putting this all together, he knows where the credit really belongs.

“It is the people in the stores every day who really make this thing work. I am just lucky enough to carry the banner,” says Ingersoll, who has been with Longs for 34 years.

“It is a tribute to the people of Hawaii that MOD can raise the money they can. It is the consumer who makes it happen for us and them.”

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