The Pike County Heart Walk is gearing up for national “Go Red for Women’ day on Friday, February 5. Already more than 200 “Go Red” tee shirts have been ordered to wear on the day set aside to build awareness of the risk of heart disease to women everywhere.

Pike County is unique to many areas when it comes to raising funds for the American Heart Association. That uniqueness comes from a group of four-year-olds at Mothers Day Out at First Baptist Church of Troy.

Each year, the children in Betty Bateman’s class learn about heart disease and then help earn money for the Pike County Heart Walk by doing chores around their homes. The money they earn supports the annual fundraiser. The children raise the bar for a lot of the Heart Walk teams.

This year, the children designed the tee shirt that will be worn on “Go Red for Women” day on Friday.

“The children were very excited about the tee shirt design and drew two days in an effort to come up with a design,” Bateman said. “The design is really cute and shows that children are concerned about heart disease and want to help.”

“Holding Hands with Friends Helps Your Heart” is the message the children chose for this specially designed “Go Red” tee shirt.”

The short sleeve tee shirts are $10 and $12 for 2x-4x. Long sleeve shirts are $15 and $17.50 for the larger size.

Shirts may be ordered by calling 334-566-7270 or 372-4702.

The purchase of a tee shirt not only helps raise awareness of heart disease it also helps in the fight against the disease.

The hard, cold fact is that heart disease is the number one killer of women.

“Women tend to eat just like men do, unhealthy,” said Annette Toney, Pike County Heart Walk volunteer. “Working women spend a lot of time at the vending machines and fast food restaurants. Women stay on the go, running errands, getting the kids to school, cleaning the house, doing laundry while holding down regular job. So, too many times we forget to take care of ourselves.”

Toney said it’s time for everyone to make a difference by inspiring co-workers, friends and family to speak up about heart disease.

“Educating ourselves about the risk of not being healthy is the first step. The statistics are there but we can beat them.

“Heart disease doesn’t know age. You can be born with heart problems or diagnosed when you are an adult. But we can help each other live longer and be stronger. We can get empowered with the facts, find a community like Pike County that supports living a healthy lifestyle, make health changes to our diets and start exercising.”