UK & Heart Association to Lexington: START! Walking
Last week I was invited to speak at one of the kick-off events for the annual American Heart Association (AHA) walk, this year chaired by one of UK's great friends, Luther Deaton. Joey Maggard is the head of AHA for this region and was one of the first people to come visit my office when I returned to UK. Joey invited CEOs to a lunch at the Hilary J. Boone Center to talk about how employers in our community can engage their employees in heart-healthy activities. UK President Lee Todd was also there to welcome the over 15 CEOs in the room. It was a great audience to share the UK & UK HealthCare story. At the same time, I was overwhelmed by the amount of support the Heart Association provides UK employees, our Gill Heart Institute ( http://ukhealthcare.uky.edu/Gillheart ), and our researchers. I have to say, I am impressed by our current willingness and openness to partnering with associations and employers to make our shared community stronger. In return, their generosity is humbling.
The American Heart Association strongly supports the UK Cardiovascular Research Center (check them out on Facebook!), and the work of individuals like Dr. Alan Daugherty here at UK. Dr. Daugherty researches such diseases as aortic abdominal aneurysm (say that ten times fast), and also serves as the Gill Foundation Chair in preventive cardiology. The Heart Association has provided $1.4 million in new grants to UK just this year, and over $25 million in the last 30 years. But it's not just about the money.
This summer, UK and AHA partnered to bring the START! program to UK employees to encourage physical activity. We had 500 employees and spouses enroll in our Summer Challenge, with 200 completing the challenge (which was to achieve either 1,200 minutes of physical activity or 425,000 steps over 10 weeks). We currently have 200 enrolled in our Fall Challenge, which will end in December. We have a total of 671 registered on the Start! Website, with a total of 37,267 miles "walked" since June. We had over 300 employees participate and now we'd love to partner with the other employers in this room to keep this program going strong. We all know how important exercise is to help avoid hypertension and to improve our overall health. Sometimes even health care providers need to be reminded (including me) and this is a great program for us, and for us to take to the community. http://www.startwalkingnow.org/
From left to right: Joey Maggard of the American Heart Association, Dr. Alan Daugherty, a UK physician and researcher, UK President Lee Todd, Luther Deaton, President & CEO of Central Bank, and me at the AHA CEO Luncheon.