To spread awareness for heart disease and stroke, the American Heart Association hosted its 3rd annual Santa Clarita Heart and Stroke pop-up event Saturday with a Heart Walk and post-walk celebration to fundraise for the cause.
“We are here to defeat heart disease and stroke so we are raising funds with all our companies and teams to help fund life-saving research and bring healthy living to our community,” said Victoria Kemp, Heart Walk director. “We want to get the community together to exercise.”
Participants in the Heart Walk were required to register online either as an individual or team. Different teams were represented with shirts as participants passed the finish line.
Heidi Hinrichs, a team member with Abbott Laboratories, walked the event with her team to support research for heart disease development. Heart disease has deeply affected Hinrichs’ family which is one of the main reasons she attended the event on Saturday.
“For me, it is all about raising money so we can stop losing our families to heart disease,” said Hinrichs.
The Heart Walk has been an ongoing event in Santa Clarita for the past three years thanks to Kelsey Muir, senior business development heart walk director and heart disease survivor.
“I was born with congenital heart disease, I have an Abbott pacemaker, which is our top fundraising team in this community walk and I’m also an SCV resident,” said Muir. “I wanted to bring this back to the community so that we continue fighting cardiovascular disease and stroke which are the number one and three killers in Los Angeles.”
The event’s post-walk celebration included tents from different health groups like UCLA Health and Abbott Laboratories. In addition, there was a food station and a booth for children to test out different work out challenges.
