Wear Red This Coming Friday

Mark it in your calendar. And check your closet for something red to wear. This coming Friday, Feb. 6, 2009 is National Wear Red Day. This is the day when Americans will show their support for women’s heart disease awareness by wearing red. Let’s paint the town red literary. Wear anything that is a red. It could as big as a coat or dress or as small as a pin. Red is for women’s heart health awarenes as pink is for breast cancer awareness.

Just another marketing ploy or or a silly gag? Well, check out who will be wearing red on Friday. It would employees and supporters of

• The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Office on Women’s Health, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
• WomenHeart: the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease
• Sister to Sister Foundation
• American Heart Association

and many other advocacy groups.

How did this thing start anyway?

The Heart Truth-a national awareness campaign for women about heart disease-created and introduced the Red Dress as the national symbol for women and heart disease awareness in 2002 to deliver an urgent wakeup call to American women.

This year, the critical message to share on Wear Red Day is “Heart Disease Doesn’t Care What You Wear-It’s the #1 Killer of Women.”

How else can you get involved aside from wearing red? Well, you can download this free National Wear Red Day toolkit for ideas on how to celebrate this day.

Now, if you happen to be in the ares of Washington D.C., maybe you should also check out the Sister to Sister National Women’s Heart Health Fair ,

a free, informative and engaging event that features lifestyle presentations, cutting-edge information on medical issues of importance to women and their families, and complimentary heart-health screenings.

Now, remember last year’s Go Red for Women TV special Untold Stories of the Heart? It was such a success that they’ve issued another casting call, this time for the 2009 episode. The casting is from January 15 to February 27.This is your chance to tell your story. Join Marie Osmond and other women and share your story.

So see you (in red) on Friday!