Students can take a break from studying to walk for the March of Dimes Saturday.

The organization raises money for research, education, community services and advocacy programs to prevent birth defects, low birth weight and infant mortality.

Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. Saturday, and the walk will begin at 9:00 a.m. in Brookside Park. Participants raise money for the walk by asking for donations.

“The walk has been done annually in Ames for the past five years,” said Andrea Riesgaard, Ames walk coordinator.

Carla Marcellus, director of March of Dimes Central Division of Walks, said 65 people joined the walk last year, and the group is hoping to have at least 100 walkers this year.

“In the Central Division, there are three walks,” Marcellus said. “There’s one in Ames, one in Des Moines and one in Ottumwa.”

The walk is expected to raise approximately $12,000, Riesgaard said. This year, the division wants to get more ISU students involved.

“We certainly expect ISU students to walk,” Marcellus said. “We get ISU students every year, but it usually depends on finals as to how many students we get. It’s a good study break, and we have free pizza at the end.”

Ames companies, corporations and stores also are expected to send employees to walk. The companies sometimes match their employees’ donated funds for the event, according to the March of Dimes Web site at www.modimes.org.

“We are expecting 10 companies and one club who have done the walk in past years to have people at the walk,” Riesgaard said.

The March of Dimes is a worthwhile and worthy cause, she said.

Riesgaard said on an average day in the United States, 10,799 babies are born. Of those 10,799 babies, 411 are born with a birth defect – from which 17 die, 156 are born with a very low birthweight and 78 die before reaching their first birthday.

The walk, which is four miles long, will start and finish at Brookside Park to raise money for all the defects, Marcellus said.

The walk will start at the park then proceed to go through the ISU campus, next to 13th Street heading south to 6th Street and back to the park, Riesgaard said.