ORLANDO, Fla. The budding partnership between the United Motorcoach Association and the March of Dimes Foundation took a major step forward at UMA Motorcoach Expo here last month with the announcement that a special March of Dimes fund-raising program has been created for all UMA members.

Called "Miles for Babies," the one-day event in September has a goal of raising $500,000 for March of Dimes programs that support its mission of improving the health of babies by preventing birth defects, and reducing premature births and infant mortality.

"UMA members can be champions for babies," said UMA Chairman Godfrey Lebron, in announcing the cause-related program.

The Miles for Babies initiative will raise the profile of coach industry companies that join in the event, create goodwill for the industry in communities were operators and suppliers participate, and engage company employees in a worthy cause, Lebron told hundreds of coach operator and associate UMA members at the opening session of UMA Motorcoach Expo.

Plus, it supports "healthier moms and healthier babies," he added.

UMA members and their spouses attending the UMA Vision Awards Banquet at Motorcoach Expo heard a powerful appeal to participate in the program delivered by an incredibly articulate and precocious six-year-old boy and his mother from Weston, Fla.

The child was Joshua Hoffman and he was born four months premature, weighing all of 1 pound 11 ounces. He spent the first 3.5 months of his life in a neonatal intensive care unit.

For weeks it was uncertain whether he would live or if he would be able to walk, talk or hear. When Joshua was three months old, his parents, Lee and Melanie Hoffman, were told he would be blind.

The Hoffmans went into what Melanie Hoffman called "full-on battle mode" to get the finest care they could for Joshua, and doctors were able to save the vision in his left eye.

Two years later, Melanie got pregnant again and thanks to a progesterone-type hormone therapy, championed by the March of Dimes, her second pregnancy went almost to term and a healthy son, Alex, was born.

But it was the first words spoken by Joshua himself that wowed and captivated the Vision Award attendees.

"Good evening," he said. "Im Joshua. I just turned six 11 days ago, and I LOVE BUSES."

Standing center stage on a banquet chair, and with minimal prompting from his mother, Joshua recounted to the spellbound audience his bus travel experiences. His first bus ride, he said, was when he was three when he went with a group on a field trip to a fire station. This past summer, when he was five, he went to summer camp.

"One day, we went on a field trip to the zoo. And, do you know what we rode in? A motorcoach! The seats were so fluffy, and it was so cool how the air conditioning came out from the bottom of the windows. I felt so lucky to be able to ride in such a big, beautiful bus," Joshua told the crowd to great laughter.

He also told how the March of Dimes had done "so many wonderful things to save my life." He said the foundation had invented the surfactant that helped his lungs get "really strong, really fast, so I could breathe better.

"They built the (neonatal intensive care unit) where I lived for the first 111 days of my life.

"And my little brother Alex . . . wasnt born early like I was because of the amazing medicine shots my mommy got so she could stay pregnant for nine months."

Joshua, who is a state "ambassador" for the March of Dimes, thanked "everyone at the United Motorcoach Association for believing in the March of Dimes and for helping it give all babies a healthy start.

"Even though my life started out pretty tough," he said, "it made me stronger. ... My dream is to be an architect. Maybe one day, Ill design new motorcoaches."

UMA presented senior March of Dimes executive Rob Lucas with a check for more than $12,600 that was raised by a handful of UMA board members who participated in a pilot fund-raising project last year. (See Feb. 1 Bus & Motorcoach News.)

The March of Dimes is establishing a website, www.milesforbabies.org, where coach operators and industry suppliers can sign up to participate in the Sept. 24 Miles for Babies fund-raising event.

Companies must register by the end of June to participate. UMA will be communicating with its members about the program throughout the year.