(Ashland) Each year, a half million babies are born premature. Sunday thousands joined together at Mahoney State Park in a walk to raise money and awareness at The March of Dimes March For Babies.

They wear their hearts on their sleeves. Each face has a story behind it, some times ones of triumph, sadly others are of tragedy. Betsy Hills and Kurt Miller lost their daughter Olivia after three days.

"We just knew that March of Dimes raises money to make sure this doesn't keep happening to other families and we just thought if we could help do anything to prevent other families from having to go through this kind of situation we wanted to do everything we could, says Hills.

They are just two of the approximately 4-thousand people who took part in the March for Babies. The money raised supports programs helping moms have healthy, full-term pregnancies and funds research. A healthy 3 year old today, Brooklyn was born at just 1 pound 9 ounces and spent 74 days in NICU. "It was a rollercoaster one you would never image until you go through it. You would have good hours, you would have bad hours, the people with multiple babies I just can't imagine walking in their footsteps, says her mother Laura Dowding.

Abbie and Bryan Christian experienced just that. "Our twin boys were born at 26 weeks so unfortunately we lost one of our sons so we hope by coming out here we can raise some money...so all babies can be born healthy and on time," they say.

A cause, those here say, is one well worth marching for. “This is happening all the time and there are families going through this everyday and everybody needs to do as much as they can to make sure that babies don't keep passing away from things that could possibly be prevented if we have enough research for it," says Hills.

Since 1970, marches have raised $1.8 billion. Sunday they estimate around 350-thousand was raised through the walk in Mahoney State Park.