Tim Converse speaks to the crowd at Sunday's March for Babies in Cranberry Township while his wife, Jenny, stands with their children Audrey, 4, and Luke, 5. The Converse family was this year's ambassador family for the march.

CRANBERRY TWP — Winds and drizzly rain chilled about 400 people at North Boundary Park Sunday morning, but such inconveniences couldn't stop their marching. This was for the children, after all.

Participants in Butler County's March for Babies, an event associated with the national March of Dimes organization, put foot to pavement in pursuit of both increased awareness of the issues surrounding prematurely born babies and funding for research to help parents dealing with such complications.

Doug Heusey, the group's committee chairman for Butler County and the march's chief organizer, said he hopes the walk prompts more people in the community to realize what it can mean to have a premature baby.

“I don't think anyone realizes how small a preemie baby is,” Heusey said. “It's the size of a water bottle.”

Read the full story in Monday's Butler Eagle.