SIMI VALLEY : March of Dimes Honors Volunteer

A Simi Valley man who has persuaded hundreds of people to volunteer for the March of Dimes has been named Ventura County’s outstanding community volunteer, charity officials have announced.

George Witham, 47, was honored for his work with the Southern California chapter of the March of Dimes Birth Defects Foundation, said Karen Berk, executive director of the charity’s Southern California chapter.

“George has really been an inspiration,” Berk said. “He’s truly a dedicated and sincere person who is able to translate his energy into getting other people excited and involved.”

The March of Dimes is a nationwide charity dedicated to preventing birth defects by raising funds for medical research and education, and lobbying for universal access to health care, Berk said.

Witham, a building engineer for the Farmers Insurance Group of Companies in Los Angeles, has been the driving force behind the corporation’s involvement with the charity, a company official said.

“There are thousands of Farmers volunteers throughout Southern California and you can trace that all to George,” said company spokesman Jeffrey Beyer. “He has recruited literally hundreds of people.”

Added Beyer: “It was through George that Farmers has become the ninth largest corporate sponsor nationally for the March of Dimes. Every little river has its source.”

Beyer said the insurance company gave the charity about $300,000 in 1992.

Witham said he got involved with the March of Dimes by chance seven years ago when a friend asked him to take part in a WalkAmerica fund-raiser. The next year he became the event’s team captain, and eventually became chair of the annual walkathon in Simi Valley.

“I believe in what they’re doing,” said Witham, who is married and has a 13-year-old son. “I have a healthy son, and for that I’m extremely grateful. I will do whatever I can to help others have healthy children.”

To that end, Witham helped form the county’s “Chain Reaction” chapter, a group of high school students who talk to other young people about the connection between maintaining healthy lifestyles and having healthy children.

“Teen pregnancy is a huge problem,” Witham said. “Many birth defects could be avoided if young people knew that you can’t use alcohol, drugs or ignore proper nutrition and expect to have a healthy child. . . . We as adults can’t reach kids the way we could before. The message has got to come from their peers.”

Witham, who is also the chairman of the charity’s Ventura County Board of Directors and a member of the executive board of its Southern California chapter, said his participation has become a passion.

“I sell it,” he said. “I couldn’t sell anything else, but I can sell this because it’s something I believe in.”