Heart Walk generates over $40,000
The American Heart Association has another $42,000 to put toward research after this year’s Heart Walk fundraiser, according to local chairman Steve Otto of River Park, who was quite pleased with the results.
“Warren County really stepped up this year and did a great job,” Otto said. “Our goal was $50,000 but we have several other fundraisers left that should bring us up to that amount. And this is opposed to the $24,000 we raised last year.”
An good-sized crowd of Warren countians gathered at the Blue Building yesterday to participate in the activities and make the walk along the Barren Fork Greenway to help raise money for the organization.
This year’s Red Cap Honoree, Dr. Barun Mukherji, said the Heart Walk is of vital importance for several reasons.
“The Heart Walk is extremely important,” Mukherji said, “because it raises awareness among us here today, and also the general population, about heart disease, cardiovascular disease, which is killing almost one million Americans a year.”
Otto agreed.
“It’s the number one killer of people in the United States,” he said. “It’s important people understand what they can do to prevent that, because there are some things they can do, and that’s what we hope to do today.”
Otto was also pleased the Heart Walk has a new route this year with the greenway.
“We’re excited,” he said, “because in years past, in recent years, we walked around River Park Hospital, and while it was a nice walk, it just wasn’t very scenic, and since the greenway was put in, we thought it was a great opportunity to not only enjoy the walk more, but to advertise the greenway to people who might not have had a chance to utilize it.”