i’m walkin’.

I am surrounded by babies.

This isn’t new. My friends from college had their baby explosion a few years ago. My sister and Mrs. Crappy’s cousins joined them, but I think they’re all about done by now. Now, my Pittsburgh friends and their families — as well as a few co-workers — are doing their best right now to ensure the propagation of the species.

I’m thrilled for all of them, whether they have newborns or whether they’re watching their kids grow up before their eyes.

I have another reason to be thrilled. All those kids? They’ve all been healthy. I’ve had a couple good friends who’ve had to deal with the surprise of a premature birth — and fortunately for them, all they’ve had to deal is the surprise itself.

In that regard, I’ve been lucky.

Not everyone is. Take the Spohrs. They lost their daughter Maddie earlier this month, when she was just 17 months old. Maddie was born prematurely. The Spohrs didn’t want flowers in Maddie’s memory; they asked their friends to make donations to the March of Dimes, and their friends have responded.

You’ve heard me say over and over and over how remarkable my Pittsburgh friends are. They responded as well. Burgh Baby started up a team that will walk on May 9; there are now more than 20 — including the Crappys — signed up for the team. She set a goal of $2,000; the team now has raised more than $2,600, and $3,000 should be pretty easy to reach.

Y’all know we don’t have kids. But it’s still not hard for the childless among us to look around and see how fortunate our friends and families have been. And it’s not hard for us to imagine the horror we all would have experienced if what happened to the Spohrs had happened with one of our friends.

Or, even worse, to my niece or one of my nephews.

We shouldn’t have to worry about this stuff. The March of Dimes is working to make sure we don’t. If you can pitch in a few bucks towards my $200 goal, you can help make sure it won’t happen to your family or friends either.