Celebrate life at Heart Walk ’08

On Oct. 4, downtown Tacoma at 8th and Pacific will be the gathering place for all the festivities happening for Start! Heart Walk, the American Heart Association’s (AHA) signature fundraising event to promote better awareness, prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiovascular disease.

In addition to raising money and fulfilling AHA’s mission, the Heart Walk has an emphasized people-oriented aspect as well offering survivors, their friends and family the chance to celebrate life in a happy, festival atmosphere and to help influence others to start living healthier lives. Those who have lost loved ones to the disease are encouraged to participate to honor fond memories of those who have passed.

Registration, which is free, opens at 7:30 a.m. and the walk starts at 8:30. There will be two walking routes, a four-mile and a two-mile, with volunteers stationed along the way for those who may need extra assistance. The walk is not rigorous and is not a race, so participants can take their time and enjoy themselves. The goal this year is to raise $550,000 through donations collected by walkers and their teams.

There’s a lot to do during the family friendly event and at the post-walk festival, including a kids zone, giveaways, food, health screenings, informational booths, exhibits, and personnel from the Gig Harbor Fire Department will be there showing how to use an automatic external defibrillator like the kind seen in airports and other public places.

This year’s Heart Walk chair is Scott Seelye, vice-president of HHJ Construction in Fife. His wife, Debbie, suffers from mitral valve prolapse, a heart disorder that occurs when the valve between the heart’s upper and lower chambers doesn’t close properly. His mother died from congestive heart failure.

Seelye said he’s determined to get people thinking about cardiac disease and stroke. “They’re the number one and three killers. I think sometimes they get overlooked a little bit,” he said.

Amy Wigstrom is executive director of AHA-Pierce County and official spokesperson for the Start! Heart Walk. Her father a heart attack survivor and her 89-year-old grandmother having suffered strokes, Wigstrom said she has made changes in her life to reduce her own risk factors for these two diseases. Thus the Heart Walk has a personal meaning for her.

“The Heart Walk is really a celebration of lifestyle changes,” she said, noting that the event has three main themes: creating hope, inspiring change and celebrating successes.

Survivors will be given red hats to wear, which will make for an eye-catching scene. “It’s really an emotional moment to look across the sea of walkers and identify how many in our community have been impacted by the disease and are walking as a celebration of their life,” Wigstrom said. Other participants will be given stickers to wear on which they can write the name of a person for whom they are walking.

According to AHA, cardiovascular disease, including stroke and diseases of the heart, is the leading cause of death in Washington. Nationwide, an estimated one in three American adults has some form of cardiovascular disease, affecting 80.7 million lives nationally. Organizers of the Start! Heart Walk are hoping that these sobering facts will spur locals to put on their walking shoes and take part.

Bridgit Eigner will participate in the walk for the very first time this year. About seven months ago, Eigner was going about her daily business when suddenly she felt what she thought was heartburn until an extreme pressure settled onto her chest. At 46 years old she was having a heart attack, and doctors put a stent in her heart to open up the blockage. The incident turned her world around, scaring her into taking a serious look at how she was living her very busy and stress-filled life.

“The funny thing is I don’t have high blood pressure or high cholesterol, I don’t smoke, drink, or do recreational drugs,” she said, which are all classic signs of someone at-risk for heart disease.

With doctors unable to give her a definite cause, she attributed the attack to stress and lack of adequate rest, then took it one step further to examine her diet and levels of exercise. Eigner said she is about 15-20 pounds overweight, so she made changes. For one thing, “I’ve definitely slowed down,” she said, and makes more boundaries in her life instead of saying yes to everything friends and co-workers ask of her. “I never allow someone to be my priority while allowing myself to be their option,” as she put it so succinctly.

For example, she’ll let an unwashed dish stay in the sink until later rather than feel pressured to keep a spotless kitchen; she’ll let her car get dirty rather than feel compelled to wash it once a week; she turns her cell phone off at night so she can rest unimpeded.

Nutritional changes include reading labels at the supermarket to find out what exactly it is she’s eating; she eats more fruits and veggies and avoids fast food; if she wants a modest piece of chocolate cake, she’ll have it but not without passing the plate around to her co-workers first so everyone can take a bite and leave less for her; she’ll split a can of pop with a friend rather than drink it all herself.

She gets more exercise too, and keeps a pair of tennis shoes in her car so she can go for walks when she wants to. Sometimes she’ll park at the far end of the parking lot so she can conveniently get in more walking time.

Basically, Eigner said she encourages everyone to create balance in their lives, to exercise and to put yourself first rather than let others stress you out.

“Attitude is everything; what you think about you bring about.”

For more information on Start! Heart Walk, to register yourself or your team, visit http://www.piercecountyheartwalk.org or call (253) 272-7854.

With additional reports by Meghan Erkkinen

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