THE St. Lucia Red Cross is continuing its quest to get as many people to sign up for their second annual 7K Fun Walk that sets itself apart from the numerous and more popular fun walks already being held here.
The theme for the event which is due to take place on November 27 is “Help us to help you”
Treasurer for the Red Cross, Vincent Boland, who is also the Chairperson for the walk said numbers are extremely important for this walk because participants only stand to gain from the experience.
Boland said although around this time of year, there are many walks taking place, the one hosted by the Red Cross is slightly different.
The Red Cross Treasurer said: “We are doing the same thing in terms of raising awareness for the non-communicable diseases, diabetes, hypertension and so on. What you will find with a lot of the walks that take place is that they raise their awareness, they have the walk and they transfer the funds but we’re the people who go into the communities with programmes. In order to raise the awareness even further we are highlighting the fact that the head of the Hypertension and Diabetes Association recently identified a pre-diabetes condition that is at a heightened level in St. Lucia. This means that we have a lot of young people who are not diagnosed with diabetes, but they are at a pre-diabetes stage, meaning that their weight levels are up, their sugar intake is high and at that rate, with them not exercising as they should, you find that they become prone to having the diabetes.”
Boland said the Red Cross has a number of programmes which involve members going into communities to give and explain information about the different effects of poor eating and exercise habits.
He said most importantly, they aim to stress on the fact that these effects spare no age group.
He said: “At a young age, you find people drinking alcohol. You find that any celebration that takes place in St. Lucia now, it’s ‘hey let’s have an alcoholic drink’. I mean, they say it’s our culture but at the same time, I don’t know if it’s something that we need to challenge and start changing it.”
With this Red Cross Walk, Boland said another important aim is to show the masses that the Red Cross does more than help the vulnerable in times of disaster, and that they go all the way to ensure that the people are also well informed about the everyday aspects of life that can be harmful or helpful.
So far, a number of sponsors have come on board including the St. Lucia Football Association and Baywalk Mall, but Boland appealed for more corporate sponsors to come out and take part in the event.
Participation costs $20 and upon registration, one gets a T-shirt and refreshments at the end
The walk commences at the Castries Comprehensive Secondary School and culminates at the Ramp in the North of the island.
