Jordan Rasmussen, Dubuque May 6, 2009
The 17th Annual Dubuque Heart Association Start Walk was held last Saturday at the River walk. With over 700 people walking to raise awareness, a fourth of the walkers were survivors.
One of the survivors, Benjamin Kuhl led the opening ceremony and cut the red ribbon for a reason. Ben was born with a missing ventricle, and thanks to tools and techniques of the American Heart Association, Bens life was saved. Ben’s mother, Lisa Kuhl was there to walk with her son.
Kuhl says, “He is a very active little boy; you don’t know that he has a congenital heart defect, unless you see the very faint scare on his chest.”
The Kuhl family walked a mile along the river with other survivors, all supported by friends and family. The start walk is just a start to make people aware of heart disease. Director Jennifer Hernandez helps raise awareness of heart disease, and is always moving.
Jennifer said, “The start walk is-The call to American’s to get out, and move, just exercise, start moving, start today, start your life, start living healthier.”
The walk was for all ages. People brought their dogs, pushed their children in strollers and some even jogged. The walk was a way to bring smiles to people’s faces. For Jennifer, “It’s a survivor’s event and people come out to support them and it’s amazing.”
After the walk, participants enjoyed lunch and listened to music. Kuhl was happy with the turn out of the day and said, “There were so many people here, and it was just awesome to see everybody, and it was awesome we had such good weather, and it was just great to see the sea of people walking out here today.”
The Heart Walk is a great start to become aware and with just an hour of exercise, you are gaining two hours of life expectancy. The heart walk raised $80,000, and for the next two weeks you can still donate by visiting the Dubuque Heart Walk website at www.heartwalk.kintera.org.
Thank you to everyone who donated and participated, the mission can’t be achieved without your help! If you have any questions about the Dubuque Heart Start Walk, contact Jennifer.Hernandez@heart.org for more information.
Jordan Rasmussen can be contacted at jordan.rasmussen@loras.edu
