Staff Writer

Pike County businesses are being given a chance to save lives.

The March of Dimes Pike County Community Council is planning a Blue Jeans for Babies day on Sept. 22.

As the letter being sent to area businesses points out, more than 10 of every 1,000 babies born in Alabama will die before celebrating their first birthday.

For that reason, the March of Dimes is fighting against birth defects, low birth weight babies and infant death.

Wenona Riley, chairwoman of Blue Jeans for Babies, is urging area businesses to "give more babies a healthy start in life."

Doing that is easy, Riley said. All a business has to do is encourage employees to purchase either a t-shirt or a button.

This year, the t-shirts feature a baby wearing blue jeans peeking through the legs of an adult wearing jeans.

T-shirts are $10 and $12 for sizes XXL and XXXL and buttons are $5.

Orders must be turned in by Sept. 6 and can be picked up between 11 a.m. and 3 p.m., Sept. 18 at Troy Bank and Trust on U.S. 231.

Riley said 600 Blue Jeans for Babies shirts were sold in Pike County last year and the goal is to sell 1,000, this year.

Wearing jeans or casual clothes to work is great way to help the March of Dimes and save babies, she said.

Of the money raised through Blue Jeans for Babies, 75 percent goes right into research and programs that bring awareness to preventing birth defects.

For more information about Blue Jeans for Babies, contact Riley at 807-3317.