Brewer boy spreads word about March of Dimes

BREWER – Ask Spencer Warmuth who he is, and the youngster will hold out his hand and say firmly, “I’m the ambassador for the March of Dimes.”

That may sound like a mouthful for a 9-year-old, but they’re not just words when Spencer says them.

He’s fully aware that he was born six weeks prematurely, at 16 inches long and weighing 3 pounds, 131/2 ounces.

And he knows what the March of Dimes does – “It researches to help kids who are born sick or early,” he explains.

The good news is that Spencer is a healthy kid, one who can easily list his favorite activities – “riding my bike in the summer, playing sports, going swimming, playing baseball, and in the winter, going skiing at Hermon Mountain, snowball fights and all that stuff.”

And it takes prompting for him to mention the sport at which he is most accomplished – tae kwon do, at which he has achieved a black belt, “going on second degree,” he said.

To look at Spencer, one would never guess he’d spent the first 12 days after his birth in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Eastern Maine Medical Center.

The Warmuth family felt especially supported by the hospital community. Mom Carol is a former pediatric nurse, dad Michael a pharmacist there.

Even so, Carol Warmuth recalled, “he was healthy – and still it was so traumatic, leaving him in the hospital. It’s a crisis when your child is born that small.”

There were more crises for the family, too. Their second child, daughter Gretchen, died at 2 days old because of complications of prematurity.

Younger son Gregory was also born small, but was full term and is doing fine.

Now almost 5, he sings in the children’s choir at All Souls Congregational Church and doesn’t miss a thing.

Show Gregory a picture of a hockey player and he knows immediately it’s one of the University of Maine Black Bears, and by the way, their next game is “tomorrow night, not tonight,” he explains patiently.

The Warmuths put a lot of effort into getting their children into the world. And they’re grateful for the research that made possible medications that helped their third pregnancy go full term.

They’re hoping that the work of March of Dimes will mean that even more healthy children will be born to families in the future.

“I’ve always contributed,” Carol Warmuth said. But now the family is willing to do something more – to actively support the walkathon; to allow their son to be featured in newspaper stories and television spots; and to bring awareness to the need for prenatal care, and for more resources to help researchers do their work.

March of Dimes WalkAmerica 2002 will be held April 28 in several locations throughout the state. Locally, the walk will begin at 9 a.m. at Brewer Auditorium on State Street.

Projects funded by March of Dimes include specific health initiatives throughout the state, a campaign to reduce birth defects by encouraging pregnant women to take folic acid, and research grants for scientists at The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor.

Those scientists are working on projects from therapies for certain anemias to the origins of developmental defects.

In past years, scientists associated with the March of Dimes have developed surfactant for the lungs of premature babies, a vaccine to prevent polio, a vaccine for rubella, various kinds of testing done on newborns and documentation that folic acid can help prevent certain birth defects.

Birth problems aren’t a thing of the past, and Warmuth hopes people will take note and realize the March of Dimes still needs support.

“Especially if they see kids get well – and go on to live normal lives,” she explained.

The Northern Maine Division Director for March of Dimes is Gene Staffiere. For information on the walkathon, including activities both for walkers and for those who would like to volunteer in some other way, call 989-3376. The March of Dimes has a Web site at www.mint.net.mainemodimes.