Two-year-old Katie Jo Taylor is like many others her age: happy and, at the right moment, thrilled to smile for the camera. Her curly, red hair goes hand-in-hand with her fiery energy.

But Katie Jo started out different than most others babies, as she was born three months premature. It was through this experience her parents, Jason and Jennifer Taylor, of Tahlequah, along with their 5-year-old daughter Madison, and friends and family, learned of technology that was used to save Katie – a result of research by the March of Dimes.

“She was due on Valentine’s Day in 2006, but instead, she arrived five days after Thanksgiving on Nov. 29, 2005,” said Jennifer.

Katie Jo weighed 2 pounds, 1.7 ounces, and was only 14 inches long, just a few inches more than an unsharpened No. 2 pencil.

“She spent more time on a ventilator than off. We spent endless hours praying, crying, and driving to and from Tulsa during that time.”

Katie spent 74 days in the hospital, and at only 6 days old, had open-heart surgery. She was given multiple blood transfusions, x-rays and ultrasounds on a daily basis. She also had to fight off two rounds of pneumonia and a small intestinal condition that caused her intestines to stop functioning properly.

“I have no doubt in my mind she wouldn’t have made it, had it not been for the March of Dimes,” said Jennifer.

A substitute teacher at Tahlequah Middle School, where Jennifer works as a nurse, heard Katie Jo’s story. The woman is active in the March of Dimes, and contacted a local office to tell the Taylors’ story. Jennifer said the organization contacted them and asked the family to be an ambassador family for northeast Oklahoma.

Now, Katie Jo’s picture is being distributed on brochures and posters for the organization. At age 2, she may not fully understand the importance her story will have on future babies. (Her older sister, Madison, however, is “really excited” her baby sister is helping March of Dimes.”

“There are 22 babies [ambassadors] in the whole state,” said Jennifer. “She’s on the brochures, and they’re going to be talking about her on the Muskogee radio station, talking about the upcoming March for Babies Walk.”

There’s also a Web site for Team Taylor Katie-Did, where the public can read Katie’s story and donate to the team’s goal of raising $2,500 for the March.

“We’re going to participate in the walk May 17 in Muskogee [at the Muskogee Civic Center], and we’re trying to obtain sponsorship and donations for the March of Dimes,” said Jennifer.

The family will attend kick-off parties to tell Katie’s story so local companies that want to donate can put a face with a name.

“It’s the first time, from what we have learned, a child from Tahlequah has been chosen as an ambassador,” said Jennifer.

The March of Dimes mission is to “improve the health of babies by preventing birth defects, premature birth, and infant mortality,” according to the official Web site, www.marchofdimes.com. “