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Last January, Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s ClimbCorps program hosted its very first climb to fight heart disease, ClimbAmerica! The event was an enormous success, bringing more than 1,000 Greater Boston residents together to climb two of Boston’s tallest buildings to fight America’s No. 1 killer — heart disease. Climbers collected pledges in support of the climb and helped raise $85,000 to support education, programming and life-saving research for heart disease prevention through ClimbCorps, Brigham and Women’s Hospital and community organizations.
Climbers came from all over to show their support, including a team from the Mattapan Community Health Center appropriately named “Team MCHC.” Led by MCHC employee Elizabeth Thomas, “Team MCHC” showed up with their ClimbCorps t-shirts, signs and abundant team spirit, ready to climb all 32 flights of 100 Summer St. in Boston’s Financial District for a cause near and dear to their hearts.
“We decided to join ClimbAmerica! to serve as role models for patients in our health center, showing them that we all need to exercise and live healthy lifestyles,” says Thomas. “We climbed to help build a healthier community, one heart at a time.”
Given the success and popularity of their first events, ClimbCorps is looking forward to their upcoming climbs on June 29th at 100 Summer St. and June 30th at the Prudential Tower.
“Heart disease is the No.1 killer of men and women,” states ClimbCorps Medical Director JoAnne Foody, MD. “In less than a year, ClimbCorps has educated thousands of individuals on heart disease prevention and gotten Boston moving, tracking more than 13 million steps through fitness programming. And we’re just getting started.”
Launched by Brigham and Women’s Hospital in September 2012, ClimbCorps is the first service corps dedicated to improving America’s heart health and plans to expand nationally in coming years. Every dollar raised by ClimbAmerica! supports life-saving initiatives and helps ensure that programming will continue toward achieving a world free from heart disease.
Online registration for ClimbAmerica! opens later this month at www.climbamerica.org. Anyone interested in participating is welcome to a free kick-off breakfast or lunch to learn more about ClimbAmerica! and how to get involved in the fight against heart disease. The kick-off events will take place on May 1 from 8:30-9:30 a.m. at the Prudential Center, May 2 from 12 -1 p.m. at 100 Summer St. and on May 3 from 12 -1 p.m. at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Please email climbamerica@partners.org to RSVP or for more information.
For more information about ClimbAmerica!
or Brigham and Women’s Hospital’s
ClimbCorps program, please visit
www.climbcorps.org.
