About 500 people collectively took a giant step - and thousands of sweaty smaller ones - Sunday for those who have yet to take their first.
Gators March for Babies raised more than $60,000 for infant health when students, faculty and alumni participated in a 5K run that began on an overflowing Turlington Plaza and came full circle under a wavering arch of balloons.
The event, which is in its sixth year and is organized by the March of Dimes Collegiate Council at UF, gathered donations for research on premature births and programs to support full-term pregnancy.
"Do people know about prematurity? No," said Kendra Grimes, the organization's president. "College students will have to realize that they're becoming parents soon. I want to have a baby one day."
According to Grimes, who has been involved with Gators March for Babies since 2006 and said she wants three children, her group's mission is to promote both healthy births and healthy living.
For each $1 donated, 77 cents will go toward prematurity prevention. The rest, she said, goes to causes ranging from Alzheimer's to cancer.
Shelley Meyer, wife of coach Urban Meyer, addressed the pre-race crowd decked in running gear and a "Beat South Carolina" T-shirt. As an honorary chair, she held up the starting banner with a crowned Miss UF, Paige Smith; Miss Florida Gator, Diana Kelly; and wide receiver David Nelson.
Meyer was one of the first to finish the run.
Runners and walkers - some pushing strollers, some four-legged - crammed into lines 30-deep upon completion, engaging in reverse carbo-loading with help from sponsors Planet Smoothie, The Gelato Company and Domino's, which had 95 pizzas on hand.
Though the gathering centered on the micro-marathon that curled from Newell to Fraternity drives, Sunday was more a celebration of all the efforts leading up to the occasion.
According to Director Lisa McCraw, 21, the collegiate council began preparing two hours a week in late March, hosting "Spirit Nights" fundraisers at local restaurants along the way.
The two top individual fundraisers, Lili Beth Giraldo, 20, and Carolyn Garby, 22, have an intimate knowledge of their cause.
Garby, a UF health studies senior, has a 25-year-old brother who was not carried to term.
Inspired by her sister who suffered prematurity as well, Giraldo, a biology junior, raised $1,092. For her efforts, she received a football signed by Urban Meyer and a whipped cream pie.
