by Zarana Sanghani
News Writer
Preparations for the March of Dimes' Walk America may require University of Houston students to walk a distance from their parking spaces Friday through Sunday.
Some parking lots will be closed to students starting Thursday night through Sunday afternoon in anticipation of the event.
The parking situation begins 6 a.m. Thursday with the closing of the east and middle entrances on Holman to Student Lots 15D and 15E. The main Cullen and the west Holman entrances to the lots will remain open for traffic.
School buses for 10,000 fourth- and sixth-grade students will use Holman to pick up children after a D.A.R.E. rally at the Hofheinz Pavilion. Closing parts of Holman will ensure the students' safety, UH Police Department Lt. Malcolm Davis said.
Faculty Lot 15B and Student Lot 15D will be closed from 9 p.m. Thursday until 4 p.m. Sunday.
Faculty Lot 15F and Student Lot 15D will be closed from 10 a.m. Friday until 4 p.m. Sunday. Students arriving after 10 a.m. Friday can park in Lots 9C or 12A.
"I come to class from 8 (a.m.) to 5 (p.m.), and my classes are all here (across Lot 15D)," sophomore Monica Gonzales said. "It'll be a big problem for me. I'd have to park really far and I probably would be late to class."
Director of Parking and Transportation Robert Browand said the closed parking lots will not cause many troubles because Friday usually has little traffic.
"It'll be a major inconvenience," senior Nova Sbrusch said. "I don't know what they expect us to do. What else can you say, though?"
The closed lots will permit the sponsoring corporations and institutes of Walk America to set up tents. The tents will include information on the organization and refreshments for its walkers.
These tents are only for the walking team associated with the organization, not for the public, said Tanya Deason, a UH spokeswoman. For example, UH will invite only UH walkers to its tent.
The 30,000 walkers will raise funds for March of Dimes, an institute fighting birth defects which are the cause of 100 infant deaths per day in the United States.
March of Dimes hopes also to set a Guinness Book World Record for the largest collection of dimes. The goal commemorates March of Dimes' history.
In 1938, millions of Americans sent dimes to the White House in response to a public call asking for donations to Franklin Roosevelt's National Foundation for Infantile Paralysis, first established to eradicate polio.
The immense response was dubbed "the march of dimes," and the foundation soon adopted the name.