| The event ended with participants making a pledge to take care of their hearts and themselves. |
About 150 women and a couple of men decked out in a myriad of shades of red packed the Jennifer Leavitt Center at the College of Eastern Utah Feb. 21. to learn how to have healthy hearts.
The luncheon sponsored by the Southeastern Utah District Health Department was one of Carbon County’s Wear Red Day activities.
While the luncheon was held Feb. 21, around the nation many women participated in activities on Feb.1, the designated Wear Red Day which is a day when Americans nationwide wore red to show their support for women’s heart disease awareness. This observance promotes the Red Dress symbol and provides an opportunity for everyone to unite in this life-saving awareness movement by showing off a favorite red dress, shirt, or tie, or Red Dress Pin.
Even though it was a little later in the month, the women who attended the luncheon at CEU were not cheated out of hearing what they needed to know to protect themselves and keep themselves healthy.
Keynote speaker Paula F. Julander, a registered nurse and former state senator, shared a personal story that sadly illustrated the onset of heart disease in women. She told the audience about her sister who developed high blood pressure and was advised to do several things including losing weight.
Julander said her sister shed 70 pounds and took her blood pressure medicine, for awhile. However Julander said that after awhile her sister decided she felt so well she needn’t worry.
The story had a sad ending when the former senator shared that her sister had suffered a debilitating stroke.
In addition to having a face put on the disease, the participants were sent home with their own goody bag containing among the special gifts such as perfumed powder and tiny pedometers and a book dedicated totally to heart health for women.