By LIZ ANDERSON
Observer Staff
Feb. 6, 2008

February is the month we celebrate presidents, black history, and love. It is also American Heart Month, and the Sister to Sister Foundation gave February a jump-start with a free heart health fair at Washington’s Verizon Center.

The goal of the foundation is to educate women about their risk of heart disease, which is the number one cause of death among American women. Nationwide, heart disease killed more than 330,000 women in 2004 — more than breast cancer. The foundation wants to motivate women to actively reduce that risk through non-threatening education.

Local women leaders discuss the personal impact of heart disease.

Telling women to come out in the middle of the day to get their arms pumped or fingers pricked isn’t the way to encourage health screening, even if they know checking blood pressure and blood sugar is for their own good. Foundation Founder and President Irene Pollin said the idea is to get women to come to get out and have fun, “sister to sister.”

“It’s engaging people in a non-threatening way and having them feel good when they get here and really, incidentally, getting screened and learning about their heart risk, and then being able to go out and do something about it,” she said.

The atmosphere was relaxed, with visitors meandering through the four main areas of the fair — or heart chambers. Wellness was the theme of the right ventricle, stress reduction was the theme of the right atrium. The left ventricle pumped up the nutrition-focused vendors and fitness vendors were stationed in the left atrium.

Holly Heart, a talking and singing robot also made an appearance. Holly is the “official spokesrobot” of Sister to Sister. Pollin created Holly to help educate women across the country about heart disease.
Holly’s theme song is “If I only had a heart,” with lyrics written by Pollin.

The good news about heart disease is that more women identify it as the number one killer of women. According to the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , the bad news is that, according to a 2003 survey by the
American Heart Association, most women still don’t see heart disease as a personal problem.