8th Annual Heart to Heart
5K Race Newsletter

On Sunday June 1st, we held our 8th Annual Heart to Heart 5K Race, 1.5 Mile Fitness Walk, and 1-Mile Kids Fun Run. It was a wonderful event. We estimated over 1500 people were in the park on a beautiful day with lots of sunshine. This reflected a record attendance at the event! The park was filled with enthusiastic people from age 1 to 86!!!

One of the greatest joys was to see the number of children who participated in each of the three events. Children want to move if you make it fun for them and this is a key component to addressing the obesity epidemic we are facing with children in our nation. A new addition this year was the Kids Fun Zone that included a moon bounce, obstacle course (provided so graciously by the youth group at Faith Baptist Church) and an entire big tent full of activities for the kids aimed at improving health and safety awareness.

We especially thank GVMed for their activities with the children and the standby medical assistance they have always provided so willingly to us. In addition, there was Hilltown Police Department doing DNA fingerprinting for our childrens safety and demonstrations of bike safety. There was “Healthy Food Choice” Jeopardy, a hula hoop contest (even our two wonderful clowns got involved in this one) and so many more fun activities that the children didn’t want the afternoon to end.

The children enjoyed running the 1 mile Fun Run, each of them receiving a logo sweatshirt, jump rope and other goodies and popsicles at the finish line to cool them down!

The school competition continued again this year with first place going to Bedminster Elementary, second place to Penn View Christian School and third place going to Rockhill Elementary. Thanks to all 8 schools who participated and we will look forward to a friendly competition again next year!

Our walkers had a pleasant walk on the more shaded area of the park and received a race bag, shirt and mini flashlights at the finish line. Walking is such a good exercise and almost everyone can enjoy it with nothing necessary except a good pair of shoes!

Then the 5K Race took off and there was some fierce competition and great performances. This year, as in previous years, there was a huge age span for the race and awards were provided in each of 5-year age categories. The runners also received race bags and shirts and fruit/water at the finish line.

When participants were not busy with all of these other activities there was a station set up to provide free cholesterol and blood sugar checks as well as blood pressure screenings. Thanks especially to Abbott Laboratories and GrandView Hospital for each of these services.

Finally, there was free food and DJ music provided throughout the day to top off the fun.

Monies raised this year was given to:

• Grand View Hospital Cardiac Rehab to purchase updated fitness equipment.
• Three elementary schools (that won the school competition) was provided funds in the amount of $750, $500 and $250 to enhance their physical education programs and for health teaching materials
• Automated External Defibrillator purchased and provided to Immanuel Leidy’s Church in Souderton.

We have two other requests pending for Automated External Defibrillators (used to treat sudden cardiac death) to be placed within our community and we hope to have continuing income throughout the year to provide these as soon as possible. We have been blessed with generous donations from businesses, groups and individuals including several memorial gifts. We are very thankful for each of these and invite your partnership at any time by sending a tax-deductible contribution to:

Healthy Hearts Foundation
670 Lawn Avenue, Suite 3
Sellersville, PA 18960

Finally, there are two other ways you can help our foundation that won’t cost you a thing!

1) Please drop off your used laser and ink jet cartridges. We are collecting these cartridges for recycling which, in turn, provides us income throughout the year. These items can be dropped off at Alderfer & Travis Cardiology in Sellersville Monday through Friday 8-5:30 pm.

2) If you shop online, visit www.onecause.com. This is an online shopping protal that donates a percentage of your online purchases into cash for our organization. There are over 500 stores affiliated with this program including favorites like LL Bean, Sears, QVC, various florists, etc…. Visit the site to learn more and select “Healthy Hearts Foundation” as your recipient. It’s totally free and provides us much needed funds!

A big "Thank You" to everyone involved in the race and the foundations work throughout the year. We could not function without the generous support of funds and volunteer time that have been so generously provided.

Continue to check this website for information about next years event!