 Good afternoon everyone. Oh my gosh, this looks amazing. You all look beautiful and handsome in your red. Thank you so much for joining us for our annual recognition of National Wear Red Day. I am Councilwoman Tamika Isaac Devine, your hostess for our first day party to celebrate Go Red Columbia. Go Red Columbia, we started an initiative and Miss Utsi and I were talking and I can't recall. I don't know, Steve, do you remember what year? We're about seven or eight years in to this recognition and this partnership with the American Heart Association. And I did an interview just a couple hours ago with NPR about politics, but of course in my red she asked about Go Red Day. And she asked me why is this so very important for the city to recognize and partner with the American Heart Association for Go Red for Women. And what I shared with her is that we as city leaders understand that our community is only as strong as our citizens. And when you have citizens who are dealing with health challenges, then that affects all of us. And so we at the City of Columbia understand that we know our job is to make sure that you have your trash get picked up, you have running water, you have roads. But it's also to make sure that our citizens are healthy and we're providing the infrastructure and resources necessary for you to live your best life. And so we have tried to do that through a variety of things, having walkways and greenways, having a wellness center and having educational programs. But this program and this partnership with the American Heart Association is so very important because it allows us to engage you as the community and taking ownership on how we all deal with our health, our lives, our communities health. And so being here today not only is dressing up and being amazing in your red, but also an opportunity for us to educate ourselves and our community about risk factors associated with a heart disease. We know that heart disease is the number one killer for women. A statistic I just saw in South Carolina where right now in the American Heart Association can correct me if I'm wrong. But I saw I think South Carolina is now number two in heart disease and something I read. And so I want to make sure that we are continuing to elevate this to the forefront to educate ourselves, but also to take action. And so when I come up at the end I'm going to talk to you guys about what we all can do to take action on taking control of our lives. But with that said I want to welcome you all for being here. Thank you for being here. And it is my honor and privilege to introduce, and of course a man that really needs no introduction, but to introduce you all to our mayor, the honorable Stephen K. Benjamin for some remarks. Who has a day party for Go Red for Women Day? And Tamika Devine is the answer to that. It's always incredible, incredibly fun day to come. I didn't wear a red jacket in the whole nine yards this year, but to play a role as a city, as a community to not only increase awareness of the importance of heart health, as Tamika indicated, the number one killer of women. But also to serve as a catalyst for change, to help all of us do more, to make sure that we extend the health and activity and vitality of the people that we love in our lives. Indeed the women who serve as a backbone of this great community in which we all live. We're thankful to each and every one of you for showing up every single year. We're thankful to the American Heart Association for the constant and consistent leadership. And I will say I'm personally thankful I get a chance to participate in the program every single year, but I'm personally thankful to Tamika Devine for her incredible leadership in this space and the wonderful staff and the team at the City of Columbia that supports her every year and making sure that Columbia is in the forefront of pushing for all the right things. So thank you and God bless you. And Milana, I'm sorry, stand up. I know she didn't like this. Milana Pinkney is my shadow today. So we also have an opportunity. The overlaying of Shadowing Day and Go Red for Women Day is a wonderful opportunity to expose our young leaders to their role in making sure that we make this world a better place, a healthier place for each and every one of us. Thank you. God bless you. So Stola didn't have to read the whole proclamation, but there are like seven or eight where as is. But we know that Go Red for Women encourages women to take control of their heart health by knowing and managing these five numbers. The total cholesterol, the HDL, the good cholesterol, blood pressure, blood sugar and body mass index. And Columbia is indeed, we understand the importance of the ongoing fighting against heart disease and stroke. And as a result, we proclaim today, National Wear Red Day in Columbia, South Carolina. My name is Stephanie DeFries and I'm honored to be this year's Midlands Go Red for Women Chair. I also work at Blue Cross for the Shield of South Carolina. So health is very important, especially our heart health. I want to say that you have the coolest shadowing today, I think of all of your classmates. So I've been sitting in meetings all day with many shadowers and they're probably bored to death. Hopefully this is not boring for you. So very cool. I offered to bring someone with me and none of them took me up on it. But I'm here today to not only support the Go Red for Women, also National Wear Red Day. So Go Red for Women movement is the trusted and passionate, relevant force for change to eradicate heart disease and stroke in women all over the world. Launched in 2004, as our awareness campaign, Go Red quickly grew into an international movement and has become a platform for real change. Today, more women than ever recognizes that heart disease is the leading cause of death for women. The next phase for Go Red, we'll focus on inspiring and empowering women. This room is amazing today. I love all the red. I love the women empowerment in here. The more women that we can talk to, our sisters, our moms, our daughters, the more powerful of an impact we are going to have. Go Red is going to create powerful collaboration, accelerate community based initiatives, integrate health technology, increase awareness and amplify influencers. It's no longer just about wearing red. It's no longer just about sharing the health statistics. It's about all women making a commitment to stand together with Go Red and taking charge of their own heart health. Together, there is nothing women cannot achieve. Thank you all for coming today to show your support. I encourage you to get your numbers today here. Special thank you to Mayor Benjamin and of course, Councilwoman Tamika Isaac Devine for raising the awareness in our city. And we hope to see all of you if you can make it on April 30th, which is the annual Go Red for Women Luncheon at the Alumni Center downtown. Thank you all and have a great day. Oh, sorry, and I would like to invite up. So we have nine faces of heart this year and we have several that are in the audience and we have Nueve to come up and tell her story about heart disease. I can tell you I have kicked off 2020 and I have met more women impacted in men for that matter with heart disease. And the more awareness and education we can get, the better our community is going to be. As a survivor of heart disease, it's important to know your condition and to go and get checked. Do as the doctor says and to constantly go and do as the doctor says, I have rheumatic heart disease and I also have mechanical valves and a pacemaker. And also last year of January 2019, I had no heart activity for 40 seconds. And by the grace of God, my heart started back up before they could use the crash cart to start the heart back up. But every year I get an echocardiogram and I go and I get my blood checked because I am on Coumadin. So I get blood levels checked, get all the vital signs that I get, EKGs done. And it's just important to follow everything that your doctor says once you are diagnosed with heart disease. And that way with medication, with constant monitoring of your blood pressure and a change in lifestyle, you could also live a normal life. And hopefully spread awareness like we are and to just be together and to make a difference in someone else's life with what you have gone through. What you have gone through and everybody else, if you just spread the awareness and just go along with it and it's just, I'm just lost. But anyway, I encourage everybody to get your vitals done and to go ahead and just live life to the fullest once you get through those bumps. Thank you. And we know when we understand the statistics regarding heart disease and stroke that we probably got several survivors in here. So at this time, I'd like to take a moment and recognize other survivors in the room if you would please stand. Thank you. And at this time, we want to, we want to get to our picture in a second. I did want to just share a couple things that we are doing at the city and just make sure, like I said, you know, it's one thing to come out and be here adorn in your red and bring awareness. And we are doing that. But we also know having awareness is the first step. Taking action is where we all want to be. And so again, we at the city recognize that we've got to all take control of our health and do action. So please make sure you are here at this wonderful day party here in this amazing facility, the Charles R. Drew Wellness Center, the city of Columbia. Here we provide lots of activities. So before you leave, please stop and find out what we have here at Drew Wellness. We have activities. You've got classes. There's informational sessions. We do partner with people to do cooking classes. You've got the indoor and outdoor tracks. So these are all opportunities. So please take advantage of it. I also wanted to remind everybody that City Hall is going red in recognition of Go Red for Columbia. So if you are on Main Street, when it gets dark, please stop and see City Hall red. Take a picture. Share it on social media because as we do awareness, we get it out to others. The other thing that is new this year, and I wanted to invite you guys or you ladies and the gentlemen who want to certainly support us. Starting in March, we will at the City of Columbia be starting what we're calling Walking Women's Wednesday. We're inviting you to join us here at Drew Wellness Center on the first Wednesday of each month at 12 noon and start walking. Taking just more steps during the day is a great way to increase your heart health. So we want you to join us here. We'll have dynamic women from around the city coming and leading the walks every month. So join us on the first Wednesday of each month beginning in March. So before we close, I wanted to recognize a couple of our partners. We do have Prisma Health who has always been an amazing partner to us and their new mobile unit is outside and will do some health screenings for us. But I wanted to recognize Ms. Regina Brown and Mr. Vince Ford from Prisma Health. You guys please stand. Thank you so much for your continued support and partnership and everything that we do. We have an amazing hospital system here in the Midlands area and we couldn't do all the programming we do without them. I also wanted to recognize with us today, we've got representatives from our school district. We've got my amazing husband, the chairman of our school board, Jamie Devine. And Commissioner Yolanda Anderson is here. And we thank them for their partnership as well. Prisma One is doing amazing things with our young people, promoting heart health, healthy lifestyles, activity, eating healthy. And we know that sometimes we as parents don't always do the right thing, but if our babies are coming home and saying that we need to eat more green or we need to exercise a little bit more or my nine-year-old who likes to challenge her mommy to planks, because in PE they challenge each other to the planks, we're going to incorporate those into our families. And so they get that information from the leadership that is at Richland London. So we thank you guys for always working with our babies and making sure that they are learning what they need to with heart health. So let me tell you a little bit about the day party before we take our community picture. So as soon as we take our community picture, you are here. You're invited to stay here as long as you can. We know some folks have to go back to work. But the day party, we wanted to do something a little bit different. And we wanted to give you the information we always do, but we want to make it fun. So we have here, we have our vendors. We've got Southeastern Institute who helped us last year. They're back. They're going to be providing massages. So I know there's going to be a long line for that. So part of your heart health and taking care of yourself is to decrease your stress factors. But that includes taking time out for massages. So please go and take a massage. Also I mentioned Prisma Health will have health screenings. The mobile unit is right outside the door. And then we also have Cooperative Health here who has some information. And then our city PR department has a lot of information about what we're doing with the city. So please go by there, get your massages. Over here we've got our Go Red photo booth. We want to ask you please go to the selfie station, take a picture, post it on Facebook or Instagram. Make sure that you're using our hashtags and share. Again, this fun, but we want to get the information out. And the more you share your pictures and stuff, the more people will know what we're doing and take control. And then of course we've got our amazing DJ here. So we'll be able to do some dancing. That's also heart healthy. You get your moving, so we'll have that going on as well. So with that I just want to close by saying again, I can't thank you enough for being here. Being here is our first step, but we want to continue every day to elevate how important it is for all of us to take control of our lives. Whether that is eating better, that's moving more, losing weight, managing your other risk factors like your cholesterol and your blood pressure. All that is so very important because we are all very precious and we've got to take more control of what we're doing so that we can live long lives. For people who weren't able to join us this year, we're here every first Friday of February, which is National Wear Red Day. So we'll continue to do that. City of Columbia will continue to elevate our profile to bring education around this issue. But the folks who are here, we want them to share their pictures on social media. So if you weren't here and you see pictures on social media, you like them and share those as well because it sounds really funny to have a selfie booth and share them on social media. But what that is is another way to bring awareness because as the larger our reach is, the more awareness we're bringing to Go Red Columbia and our partnership with the American Heart Association. And then starting in March, we're going to start Walking Women Wednesdays, which we'll meet at Drew Wellness Center at 12 o'clock on the first Wednesday of each month to have a walking club. Just get out walking with folks in your community, get to know new people, but also utilize each other as accountability partners so that you are taking steps towards better health.