HealthSept15

HealthSource Publisher
AJ Beson, Heart Walk
Sponsor, with Blake and
his mother Angela at a
Heart Walk Executive
Event.
Blue, who is the 2015 First Coast Heart Walk
chairman. Smith said he recently attended an
event for the Heart Walk at EverBank Field. He
stepped out of an elevator, and the first person
he saw was Blake wearing a little red cape and
running around.
“I was just taken by this kid,” Smith says. “It
gave me that much more motivation to do this,
just knowing his story, what he’s going through,
what his family is going through and that we
can make a difference.”
Smith, who was on the executive leadership
team for the 2014 walk, last year lead the
executive challenge, which encourages
executives to donate to the walk and get other
executives to do the same. He was asked by
Terry West, last year’s walk chairman, to be the
chairman this year, and he was happy to do it.
“I’m really excited about it,” Smith says.
“There are great colleagues on the leadership
team, and when I think about 20,000 people out
there on Sept. 19th—I just love the work we’re
doing. It’s the largest single fund-raising walk in
Jacksonville.”
Blake’s story inspired Dr. Leslie Cooper,
chairman of the department of cardiovascular
diseases at Mayo Clinic in Florida as well.
She saw a video of Blake on the Internet and
thought he was “adorable”.
Cooper came to Jacksonville in February of
this year and almost immediately was asked
to be in charge of rallying the Mayo staff to
walk in the Heart Walk. Cooper specializes in
myocarditis (heart muscle inflammation), the
third leading cause of cardiac sudden death in
young adults. He had been working for many
years with the American Heart Association at the
national level but never on a local level. Cooper
says he accepted the leadership for Mayo
Florida and a spot on the executive leader team
to support the local Heart Association and to be
a good citizen in his new community.
Cooper says Mayo in Florida focuses on rare
and undiagnosed cardiac conditions, and heart
disease is one of its five primary emphasized
service lines. The Heart Walk attracts more than
1,000 Mayo Florida staff each year, Cooper says.
They are recruited through a variety of ways.
During an onsite sign up event, previous team
captains talk about their experience and others
talk about their experience with heart disease.
“While the primary focus of the walk is fund
raising, it also has a lot of health awareness,”
Cooper said. “I like being able to help people
who have uncommon diseases like myocarditis.”
Lisa Craig, communications director for the
local AHA, says the event is pet friendly—there
will even be a Top Dog photo contest. There
will also be information about healthy living
and plenty of fun activities for children. The
festivities start at 8 a.m. on Sept. 19th and the
three-mile walk starts at 9 a.m.
Last year, 15,000 people participated in the
2015 First Coast Heart Walk. It’s usually 18,000,
but it rained in 2014. This year the goal is 20,000
people. Last year’s walk brought in $1.2 million
and the goal for this year is $1.75 million.
For more information, visit
FirstCoastHeartWalk.org.
September 2015
healthsourcemag.com—15