If you happened to notice a lot of people wearing red on Wednesday, it was all thanks to UR’s Wear Red Day. The American Heart Association has its own Wear Red Day that occurs annually on Feb. 1, when it promotes heart health.
“We wanted to have our own UR Wear Red Day,” Co-chair of the UR Student Health Advisory Committee and senior Stefanie Trop said. “Cardiac problems are so prevalent and we thought the issue of heart health would be relevant to the entire campus community.”
In addition to sponsoring Wear Red Day, URSHAC also sponsored a talk by UR Medical Center Cardiologist James Eichelberger.
“[He] talked to students about important ways to keep our heart health in check. He talked about modifiable risk factors like blood pressure, cholesterol, and exercise and the non-modifiable factor of family history,” Trop said.
The event was the brainchild of URSHAC and University Health Services, planned out in conjunction with the University’s Feel Fabulous in February events, which include Healthy Heart Month, National Eating Disorders Awareness Week and an Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine Clinic that will be offered on Feb. 28. In recent years, UHS has sponsored Feel Fabulous in February, which was a more general health fair in Wilson Commons.
“Wear Red Day is happening in place of Feel Fabulous in February this year,” Trop said.
Many other groups also got involved in the project in addition to URSHAC this year.
“There will be a heart-healthy lunch and Hirst [Lounge] will be filled with tables run by Alpha Phi [Sorority] (providing simple health recipes and selling tickets for the Valentine’s Banquet), URSHAC (supplying information about heart health and selling T-shirts), Dining Services (showing healthy ways to eat on campus), Well-U (the employee wellness program), Coca-Cola (providing alternatives to soda) and a raffle run by the UHS Health Promotion Office,” Trop said.
“Downstairs, Colleges Against Cancer will be running their Stairmaster Challenge to raise money for Relay for Life. There will also be a heart-healthy dinner in Danforth Wednesday night.”
Associate Director for Health Promotion Linda Dudman explained the allocation of funds.
“The donation portion of the T-shirt sales will be given to the American Heart Association,” she said.
Dudman is confident that the event will be a success.
“I have been very pleased with the planning for this event,” she said. “Stefanie Trop has done an outstanding job with all aspects of the planning. Once the day is over, Stef, Jenny Jacobson and I will discuss how the day went and what we would do differently next year.”
UHS has a myriad of activities planned after February, as well, with the Wellness Survey results being unveiled in March and a Health Fair in April. With the success of Wear Red Day, do not be surprised if next year’s event turns out to be bigger and better.
Maystrovsky is a member of the class of 2009.
