We are always encouraging our You’re the Cure advocates to look out for opportunities to get involved at the American Heart Association beyond just their advocacy efforts. We want our advocates to not only feel like they have an active network of other advocates that they can engage with, but also feel comfortable engaging with other parts of the organization.
To encourage advocates to get involved we promote many different activities that are happening across the state from volunteer opportunities at Heart Ball to joining a team at Heart Walk or Heart Chase. Recently, there was a different event that took place in Greenville, NC that was another way in which some of our advocates found a chance to be involved.
On June 14, 2013 the American Heart Association in eastern North Carolina hosted the First Annual Researcher Dinner. Individuals were able to join Samuel F. Sears, Ph.D., Director of the Doctoral Program in Psychology at East Carolina University and Robert M. Lust, Ph.D., Professor and Chair of the Department of Physiology at East Carolina University as they shared about dynamic new research that has been happening within the community to help combat heart disease throughout the country.
Your'e the Cure Advocate and NC Advocacy Coordinating Committee Member, Neil Dorsey, was able to attend the event. Neil took his LTE writing skills to work and wrote a letter for The Daily Reflector urging his fellow community members to learn more about the American Heart/Stroke Association and urging them to find a way to get involved. Here is a portion of what Neil had to say:
“What can we in the community do to continue these ground-breaking programs and the health of the community? Lust identified a number of risk factors that you can control to save lives: Don’t smoke, eat healthy and exercise. And support your American Heart/Stroke Association. Let your elected officials know how important the National Institute of Health research programs are, the fiscal impact on our community and health of our community. And use the tobacco settlement for tobacco control only.”
Read Neil’s entire Letter to the Editor here.
Want to learn more about how you can get involved? Sign up to join our Community Site and receive emails about the latest activities happening in advocacy or email Betsy Vetter at [email protected] to learn more about how you can get involved in your community!
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