Luncheon raises women's awareness of heart disease

The national American Heart Association Go Red for Women campaign has adopted a symbol of a red dress that represents the movement – just as the pink ribbon stands for support of survivors and research for breast cancer.

The red dress symbol together with local campaigns such as the Go Red for Women Luncheon – Sept. 14 at the Oasis Convention Center in Springfield – will help spread the word of the dangers of heart disease in women.

In 2003, coronary heart disease claimed the lives of 233,886 women compared to 41,566 lives from breast cancer and 67,894 from lung cancer. Thirty-nine percent of all female deaths are a result of a cardiovascular disease.

“I realized that we, as women, just needed to start standing up and helping other women be educated about this,” said Leslie Funk, chairwoman of this year’s Go Red for Women Luncheon. Education is important, she added, because risk factors — or at least, some of them — can be controlled.

“We might not be blessed with being able to control things that are genetically passed on to us, but certainly we can control how much exercise we get and the quality and quantity of foods that we eat,” Funk added.

At the luncheon, attendees will receive tips and other information on how to recognize the signs of cardiovascular diseases and steps to take to prevent them.

Springfield’s first Go Red for Women Luncheon was held in 2005. Nearly 300 people attended the event, which raised $18,000 for research and education on cardiovascular diseases in women. The funds remain in Missouri.

The goal this year is to have 450 attendees and to raise $50,000, most of which will be generated through corporate sponsorships.

Carol Jones, Realtors is the presenting sponsor of this year’s event, having donated $10,000 to the cause.

“I think that they’re a good association because they have educational programs to help women live a more productive life,” owner Carol Jones said of AHA. “I think that is important because the better we take care of our heart, the longer we’re going to live. It will be fun for people and a way for more people to learn about heart disease.”

Jones said she is encouraging people to attend the luncheon and is happy to sponsor a cause that she believes is doing great things in the community.

St. John’s Women’s Heart Center and CoxHealth are Gold Level donors, contributing $5,000 each.

Several other local businesses, including the Springfield Business Journal, also are sponsoring Go Red for Women.

Individual tickets are $25 each, or for guaranteed group seating and signage, a table for 10 can be reserved for $500.

The event features a one-of-a-kind “Purse-onalities” auction, and the keynote speaker is Dr. Tracy Stevens, a cardiologist with St. Luke’s Mid-America Institute in Kansas City.

The “Purse-onalities” auction will include 30 red purses that are worth at least $100. Women throughout the community have been asked to donate a purse for the auction and fill it with items that represent their personality.

Joy Robertson of KOLR-10 will emcee the event.

Rae Swan, metro executive director of the American Heart Association in Springfield, said the event is a way to bring the national campaign to a local level and inform area women about the dangers of heart diseases.

“It is very important for the community to get involved and for women to get involved and actually come to the luncheon so they can … learn about how they can take charge of their health,” she said.

Swan added that companies who sponsor the event will have much visibility the day of the luncheon as well as in the campaign overall.

“We have so much visibility that we can give to them as far as links on our Web site, we have different information that’s going out to the public, we have billboards, we have radio, we have television,” she said. “We have a lot of different reasons why a company would want to get involved.”

Swan said it is also a good opportunity for companies to give back to the women they work with or women that work for them.

“They can send 10 women to the event and just give them some health information that they can take away,” she said.