Heart Month

February is American Heart Month and as a Spokesperson for the AHA, I have been very busy. I started Heart Month off by working with the Ross “Dress for Less” Stores to fundraise for the AHA. I manned a booth and solicited donations from shoppers, as well as informing them about the most common warning signs of heart disease and stroke.

I made Valentine’s Day cards for female cardiac patients with a campus organization– it was a lot of fun!

I worked behind the scenes to help prepare for the Crystal Couture fashion show and fundraiser for the AHA. Not to mention, I secured an internship with the American Heart Association office where I now volunteer weekly by going to the AHA Greater Washington Region headquarters and acting as the right hand to the Director of Marketing and Communications.

Also on my calendar for this month is a visit to a DC based elementary school, where I will help facilitate their Jump Rope for Heart event. This is a big national fundraiser that is carried out through the elementary schools across the country. I will also be speaking to the children about my story and healthy eating habits.

This week I will be doing a “Go Red” presentation for my sorority pledge class (more on this later). I have red dress pins for each of them and they are going to help me with some of my fundraising and AHA events!

As the month winds down, it will be culminating with a workshop for girls competing in pageants including all the Miss Teen DC and Miss DC International contestants. I plan to share with them my mission with the AHA and hopefully groom some of them as potential future volunteers! The following day I will be helping with a Zumba dance fundraiser to benefit the American Heart Association- I can’t wait!

I am also going to also be featured on my school website for Heart month- I’ll blog about this later as well!

Last but not least, I will be volunteering at the largest AHA fundraiser of the year- The Heart Ball! I hope to be a red dress model again this year- it was such fun last year!!!

Juliana McKee