WOODLAND HILLS : 2,000 Line Up for March of Dimes

Balloons, clowns, children pushed in baby strollers and approximately 2,000 people with their walking shoes on could mean only one thing: the annual Warner Walk for the March of Dimes.

In 1983, the first year of the march, 96 employees representing five companies participated. Thursday, about 2,000 marchers raised $91,600 for the charity’s Campaign for Healthier Babies, a nationwide effort to prevent birth defects and infant mortality.

The marchers, wearing brightly colored T-shirts emblazoned with their company’s name, set out at noon for the mile-long trek.

Many said they were walking because they believed the March of Dimes was a good cause, and they described the event as fun and good exercise.

“I have children and I’m thankful that they’re healthy,” said Earline Polk-Smith, a senior policy analyst for HealthNet, the event’s underwriter.

“I’m a concerned parent and concerned about the children of the world, and I think it’s a good cause.”

Isabel Moreno of Blue Cross had been meaning to participate for the last eight years but said she would always forget about the march until it was too late. On the day before the march, when a co-worker reminded her of the 10 a.m. deadline for signing up, Moreno spent the next hour getting sponsors. She raised $35.

Although only two employees of the law firm Lovretovich & Karen donned walking shoes, they raised $250.

“We twisted everybody’s arm. They didn’t want to walk, but they paid us,” said Tracy Watz, a legal secretary.

Lunch--sandwiches, bottled water, soft drinks and chips--awaited the walkers at the finish line. So did an awards ceremony.

Robert Drake, 23, raised $100 but had the most sponsors, 156. Drake, an employee of The Pacific Rim Co., won a two-night stay in Las Palmas, Calif.

“It’s a good charity and my wife had a baby who died from early birth,” Drake said. The child, not Drake’s, was born with an underdeveloped lung and died shortly after being born.

Bill Quitazol, a HealthNet employee, raised $4,225 and won a two-night stay at Lake Arrowhead resort in the San Bernardino mountains near Big Bear.

Marci Armin of HealthNet received an award for the company that raised the most money.

“She works for weeks before and weeks after the march,” said Jill Luick, a HealthNet employee who works with Armin in the company’s legal affairs department.

“You associate Warner Walk with Marci.”

As team captain for HealthNet, Armin won a two-night stay in San Diego. Armin has walked in all 12 Warner Walks, but her involvement with the March of Dimes goes back to her childhood.

“I remember going door to door for the Mother’s March at night with my mother holding my hand and asking for money for polio research,” said the Sherman Oaks native.

“We would ask people for dimes.”