Sorority sponsors heart walk
By Brandon Davis
Published in News on February 22, 2017 9:29 AM
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News-Argus/BRANDON DAVIS
Lynwood Dees and his wife Judy walk together at Berkeley Mall Saturday for the Goldsboro Alumnae Chapter's Healthy-Heart Walk.
Gene Thomas loves his sweets -- and barbecue.
But the 63-year-old retiree joined his wife Saturday morning at Berkeley Mall for some walking and healthy eating.
Thomas and his wife Denise walked inside the mall with 29 other Goldsboro Alumnae Chapter-- including two sororities and two fraternities -- for the 4th annual Healthy-Heart Walk.
The Delta Sigma Theta Sorority sponsored the event from 7 to 9 a.m. to encourage exercise and healthy eating among the community and African-Americans.
February also marks national awareness for a healthy heart.
"I have a family history of some blood pressure issues. I'm trying to ward off some of those things," Thomas said, who retired from the education field 10 years ago. He is a member of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity of Indiana University.
"I also want to be able to eat what I want to eat."
Denise said her husband exercises daily at the Goldsboro Family YMCA to stay in shape and to continue eating sweets and pork. Thomas joked that his wife talked him into walking, but he quickly said he wanted to walk.
Lynwood Dees, a member of the Omega Psi Phi fraternity, seemed to have the same sense of humor as Thomas.
"I'm here because of my wife," Dees said. He then laughed. Dees retired four years ago with his wife Judy Dees from the O'Berry Center.
"Obviously, we all benefit from exercising," he said. "It's one of those things we know from literature that will benefit you if you are affected by heart (disease), diabetes, age."
He and his wife exercise five days a week at the YMCA. Judy said her husband wakes her up at 5 a.m. to work out.
She was not joking.
Tyjuana Atkinson, coordinator of this year's event and a member of Delta Sigma Theta, said each fraternity and sorority -- Delta Sigma Theta, Kappa Alpha Psi, Omega Psi Phi and the Alpha Kappa Alpha sorority -- represents several universities in the country.
Atkinson said walking is not only beneficial to adults in the Goldsboro Alumnae Chapter but to everybody.
"Walking benefits with stress, obesity, heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure," she said. "Almost everybody can walk."
She helped place information from pbs.org on a table in the middle of the mall, which reported African-Americans are more likely to develop high blood pressure, and African-American women ages 55 to 65 are twice as likely to have a heart attack than as a white woman.
Atkinson then put information from the American Heart Association about the importance of healthy foods on the table. She then placed bottled water, oranges and raisins on the table to encourage the walkers to not only exercise, but to eat healthy.
That's something Thomas is working on.
"There's no limit to what I can eat," Thomas said. "As long as I work out I think that I'll be able to do it."