World Heart Day on campus is scheduled to take place Sunday in the Community Activity Center.

The official date for World Heart Day is Friday. This day was established as a way to internationally spread awareness about heart disease as well as stroke prevention. The theme this year is “Share the Power.” More information on the day can be found on the World
Heart Day website.

Professor Barbara Engebretsen of Health and Human Performance and Sport Department, said that heart diseases are the leading cause of death in all countries. World Heart Day was established to provide
awareness of heart disease. The day focuses on providing information. Interpreters will be provided to break through language barriers.

“I started doing this as a service learning class,” said Engebretsen. “Now, we’ve got four classes.”

These classes are PED 400, Cardiac Rehab; FCS 340, Community Nutrition; PGH 200, Introduction to Personal/Public/Global Health; PED
346, Organ/Admin/Curriculum El Ed HPE. The FCS class will provide food as well as cookbooks for people to take home. The Organ/Admin/
Curriculum class will have the activities planned and a heart
check is offered.

Starting the participation with World Heart Day on campus was a good way to take the curriculum the students learn in class and use it in
the real world, said the WSC Service-Learning director, Lisa
Nelson.

Sunday, there will be activities for students and faculty to take
part in. These will include blood pressure and risk factor screening; heart healthy lifestyle recommendations and resources; heart healthy
food tasting and recipes; and blood glucose screening and information; games and activities for all ages; and “Save a Life! Hands Only CPR” training in 30 minutes or less.

Jodie Thompson coordinates and teaches the 30-minute CPR for all ages.

There are great stories of elementary students who have used this unit to save lives, said Engebretsen.

Throughout the events, “We will provide blood screening the whole time,” said Engebretsen. “We are going to try to have some fun.”

In day-to-day life, non-English speakers are more at risk for heart problems, said Nelson.

“We will have a number of bilingual interpreters,” said Nelson. “A lot of times people are afraid to ask questions at the doctor’s.”

Due to the benefits that the screenings offer Nelson said, “I would just encourage everyone to get the screening for free.

“We want to make sure and thank our administrations,” said Nelson. She also said that she wanted to thank Engebretsen for working hard
on organizing and planning the event.