Randi Calbert worries that kids today are becoming too sedentary for their own good. That’s why she brought her 7-year-old son to the American Heart Association’s Healthy Family Training Camp at the KFC YUM! Center.
“Nowadays, all kids want to do is sit around and play video games,” she said. “I brought him to teach him the benefits of healthy eating and exercise.”The free event was expected to draw about 650, which included giveaways for the kids, activities and free tickets to the University of Louisville women’s basketball game against Xavier University.
Matt Rountree, a spokesman for the American Heart Association’s Louisville affiliate, said the event was intended to raise awareness of heart health. The group partnered with U of L’s athletic department, which provided dozens of student athletes to run events for the children.
Rountree said numerous U of L teams were represented there, including the tennis, lacrosse, swimming and baseball teams. Calbert, of Middletown, said her family history includes diabetes and high blood pressure and she wants her son to start focusing on his health now while he is young.
Courtney Burge, the event coordinator, said last year’s inaugural Healthy Family Training Camp drew only about 80 people. She said the attendance spiked this year because of several businesses promoted it, the partnership with U of L and the lure of free game tickets as well as free t-shirts for the first 250 children.
According to the heart association, nearly 70 percent of American adults are overweight and 30 percent are obese, which often leads to heart problems. Rountree said that more Americans die annually of heart disease than from all types of cancer combined.
Fans at yesterday’s basketball game were asked to “go red for women” to raise awareness of the health risk women face and how to reduce women’s risk of heart disease. According to the heart association, heart disease is the number one killer of women over 20 and stroke is number four. Burge said people can cut down on their risk simply by eating a more healthy diet and engaging in routine exercise.