American Heart Association’s National Wear Red Day is Friday, February 4, 2011 | Community Spirit

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - February is American Heart Month, and the American Heart Association designates its first Friday as National Wear Red Day—part of Go Red For Women.

In 2004, the association launched Go Red For Women, a campaign to alert women to the fact that heart disease is their number-one health threat. Now, many more know that heart disease is not only a man’s disease; indeed, it actually kills more women than men, almost 422,000 per year, about one per minute, more than the next four leading causes of death, including all forms of cancer, combined.

This year’s Go Red For Women theme is “Make It Your Mission,” and urges you to “Tell 5.” The American Heart Association encourages everyone to tell five friends about the dangers of heart disease and stroke. By spreading the information to friends, who then spread the information to their friends, people move lifesaving information over a wide area and to those who need to hear it.

Here in Kentuckiana, Norton Women’s Pavilion is helping to get that message out by serving as Kentuckiana Goes Red sponsor.

Over the years, Go Red For Women has grown into far more than an awareness program. Today it is a movement, stirring women to take action and fight heart disease and stroke. As an example of how, the initiative includes BetterU, a free 12-week online nutrition and fitness program.

An action the American Heart Association urges everyone to take—men, women and children alike—is to wear red on February 4 as a show of support for this vital fight. A dress, a shirt, a necktie, a blazer, a pantsuit, a scarf . . . anything, as long as it’s red, is perfectly fitting for this occasion. Nor do people need to hold their observance to February 4. Any day can be Wear Red Day, and the American Heart Association’s red dress lapel pin is the ideal accessory.

Watch for people in your community—friends, co-workers, the anchors on the news, store clerks, everyone—to be wearing red. For more information about Go Red For Women, and also to find out more about BetterU, visit www.GoRedForWomen.org.

Kentucky Wear Red Day events

• Health screenings at Macy’s at Oxmoor, noon to 2 p.m.—Stop by for a free blood pressure screening, body fat analysis and smoking cessation information, courtesy of Norton Healthcare; Estee Lauder red lipstick touch-up station; fun red dress cutout photo opportunities; and a Macy’s 20 percent discount on most purchases if you’re wearing something red—even your lipstick counts.

Landmarks Going Red

• Across the region, organizations have come aboard as supporters of Go Red For Women by lighting, accenting, and decorating their properties in red. So far, this year’s roster of red landmarks includes, in Kentuckiana: American Heart Association, TARC, Atria Senior Living-St. Matthews, Brown-Forman, Jewish Hospital Medical Campus, The Summit, YMCAs of Louisville, Proof on Main, the Muhammad Ali Center, and the lighthouse atop the Andrew Broaddus on the Louisville waterfront.

In Shelbyville: Shelby Fit for Life, Merle Norman, Friends Salon, Goodwill Job Training Center, Kentucky Farm Bureau, Collins High School, Jefferson Community & Technical College, Kresin Veterinary, Through the Looking Glass, Shelby Drug Court, American Red Cross, Commonwealth Bank and Trust, Citizens Union Bank and Empty Closet Shop.

In Elizabethtown: Cardinal Health.

In Shepherdsville: Bullitt County Health Department and Paroquet Springs Conference Center.

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