Five Points business owners donating proceeds to March of Dimes

COLUMBIA,SC (WOLO)- November is prematurity awareness month and Five Points Association and some of its businesses are coming together to support Village Idiot Pizza owners Brian and Kelly Glynn.

“We’re taking the opportunity to raise awareness and funding for the March of Dimes,”Amy Beth Franks, Five Points Association executive director said. “We dyed the fountain purple on Friday.”

Proceeds from every sale go towards a cause that hits close to home for Village Idiot owners Brian and Kelly, parents to 1-year-old twins Liam and Willow born at just 28 weeks.

“I went and saw my son first,” Brian said. “He was 2 pounds 9 ounces. I went and saw my daughter after she was one pound 11 ounces. Looking at them, it’s kind of like, how does this work. How can he survive.”

The twins started life, fighting to see another day.

“It was surreal,” Brian said. “When you see them connected to tubes and wires and they’re so fragile and tiny. To get to that point when they survive that first week or so, and to hold them, it was good.”

After 71 heart wrenching days of being in the NICU, Brian and Kelly got to take their little bundles of joy home.

Realizing that some parents with premature babies don’t get that same experience, the couple decided to step up. Even getting other businesses in Five Points to chip in.

“For them to step up and say yeah we want to be apart of this, we want to do this with you, it’s an unbelievable feeling,” Brian said.

“When you have a business in 5 points, you’re not in a strip mall or island all on your own, you’re part of a community,” Beth said. “We’re a family down here. When something happens to one of us we all wrap our arms around it and get through it together.”

The couple is sharing their success story in hopes to inspire others living through similar experience.

“When you start you really don’t know what the fight is, you don’t know what the rules are,” Brian said. “But there are people that have gone through it. There are people that can help you. Help you understand it. Help pick you up when you’re down, and help you move forward and be as strong as you can for your babies.”