Derby promotes family health

It was a stroller derby yesterday at Mountain View Park, and Princess Latimer came in first – and fussiest.

“I don't know why she's tired,” the 2-year-old's breathless mother, Sofia Galvan, jokingly said after helping push the girl more than four miles around the park in the San Diego Birthing Project's third annual stroll.


DARYL PEVETO / Union-Tribune
Family members Mario Garcia (left), Jasmine Smith and Yannalie Smith pushed Valerie Bojorquez in the baby stroll at Mountain View Park.
The event raises funds for the nonprofit, serves as a pep rally for its staffers, volunteers and clients, and helps spread the word about the Birthing Project's campaign against infant mortality.

The local chapter, one of about 80 in North and Central America, pairs mentors known as “sister-friends” with pregnant women, providing health guidance as well as emotional support for those without strong family networks.

“We talk about eating healthy, exercising, taking your vitamins – taking care of yourself. That's the most important thing in pregnancy,” said Sylvia Devoe, the group's parent educator.

Devoe said she has one client who just lost her baby.

“So I'm talking about grieving with her now,” Devoe said. “And she's 16.”

The Birthing Project, which runs on an annual budget of $65,000 and has received substantial funding from the Jacobs Family Foundation, also offers education and support to new mothers outside the sister-friend program.


Advertisement
Yesterday's race drew a mix of parents, Birthing Project workers and family members. Galvan, who alternated laps around the park with her son, James, 15, is a former client who now volunteers with the group.

“I try to give back what was given to me,” she said.

She and James had to dig hard to keep Princess ahead of Valerie Bojorquez, a 1-year-old sporting Hollywood shades and a bumper crop of pigtails that bobbed in the afternoon breeze.

Valerie's mother, Miriam, brought a family contingent a half-dozen strong, meaning fresh legs on the laps. The tot's uncle, Christopher, almost caught the Princess Express on the backstretch.

The Bojorquez brigade had to slow, though, to tend to a technical matter: Valerie was attempting to eat one of the tissue-paper “petals” decorating her flower-themed stroller.

The competition was not exactly cutthroat; at one point, the Bojorquez family helped push 7-month-old Xione Cloud for his tired mother, Ronetta.

At the end, there were gift bags for all, including hair products from Dr. Miracle's, a project sponsor, and prizes including San Diego County Fair tickets and grocery certificates.

Though the stroll drew fewer than the organizers had hoped – some seven contestants and about 30 attendees altogether – San Diego Birthing Project director Cynthia Boyd said the relatively young event needed some time to grow.

And if the day was all about good health, the lesson was not lost on Sofia Galvan.

source:www.signonsandiego.com