Heart Walk, Heart Disease & Me

It's funny the amount of memories the human mind can store, for recall at a moments notice.

Like the Christmas time that we had to call the paramedics to Santa's Enchanted Forest (a theme park) because my mom was having a mild heart attack.

Or the time that my mom performed CPR on a stranger who was going into cardiac arrest.

There was the time that I got home from school to find that my father had been taken by ambulance to the hospital because he was having chest pains, and we feared that he might be having a heart attack.

Or the time that doctors first explained to me that my mom has a leaky valve in her heart.

I can still remember looking up Atrial Fibrillation for the first time so that I could understand another condition that had been plaguing my mother for years.

By now, if you're following my Facebook page, then you know that I have signed up to do the Heart Walk in October to raise money for the American Heart Association.  It's not just about me losing weight or walking to get healthy.  It's not just about me raising money for some random charity.

There's a personal connection for me.

I already have a handful of people who have promised to walk with me that day.  I'm nervously pending their registration to confirm that they mean it when they say that they will join my team.

The hard part is reaching the $100 fundraising goal that I've set for myself, or helping my team reach the $1,000 fundraising goal that I set for it.

I've come to realize that the Chubby Chick for Charity project is asking a lot of others...in tough economic times, I'm asking for people to reach in their pocket and hand out their hard earned cash JUST to motivate me and help some random charity.  But, I like to think that I don't ask any more of people than they are able to comfortably give.  For example, if I could get 100 people to just pledge $1.00 for the walk-a-thon, I would easily reach my fundraising goal for the price of a bottle of water.

At most, if I could get 20 people to pledge $5.00 - less than a McDonald's value meal - I'd still be successful in my fundraising goals.

$100 seemed like a reasonable goal at first, but I suppose that only time will tell.

UPDATE:  In the couple of hours since I first posted this, two of my beloved Chubby Chasers have stepped up and "single-handedly" helped me reach my goal!  Louis Mariscal has pledged a $50.00 donation and Taryn Rusnell has once again stepped up with a work-out challenge!  Since I've declared Wednesdays to be "Walk-A-Thon Wednesday", Taryn has pledged $5.00 for every Wednesday I work out between now and the Heart Walk, for a possible total donation of $75!  Plus, to motivate her own health and fitness, Taryn has further pledged an additional $5.00 for any Wednesday that she DOES NOT work out.  Granted, I have a lot of work to do to earn Taryn's pledge, but with only 15 Wednesdays between now and then, I'm determined to milk her for every penny!  lol  Thank you, Thank you, Thank you to these two wonderful supporters!