About 200 women slipped into their favorite red dresses and went out on the town Thursday night.
The annual Go Red for Women gave “the girls” a good excuse to bid on auction items and huddle around tables sipping on their favorite beverages while catching up with friends.
Melissa Gerke, development director with the American Heart Association, said organizers were pleased with the turnout.
“There are a lot of people here, and they look like they’re enjoying themselves,” Gerke said.
The event marked the fifth Go Red for Women in Jefferson City, she said.
Last year, after the COVID-19 pandemic, the association “kind of dipped our toe back in the water,” she said. “This year, we’re happy to be back with the program.”
A number of featured survivors for American Heart Association events are women who suffer from heart conditions when they are pregnant, giving birth or post partum, Gerke said.
“Maternal health is one of the big focus areas — a pillar now — for Go Red for Women,” Gerke said, “because it is a risk time for women. We’re looking at life stages — maternal and also menopausal women. Hormones, and things that are happening in your body, put a strain on your heart. That is when we tend to see these things happen.”
The illnesses are examples of why the work is so important, she said. There seems to be a hormonal tie, she continued.
The event is intended to raise money for research into heart diseases. The goal for Thursday was to raise about $20,000.
Silent auction packages included a Mizzou stadium package; a “beach read” package with beach bag, “Golden Girls” mugs, cocoa and three books; a personal hygiene package; a “Cat Lady” package; a large Kate Spade Minnie Mouse tote with jewelry; a Kate Spade travel package; a Talbots floral tote bag and matching scarf with jewelry; a Halloween “tricks and treats” package; a girl’s weekend package (wine, sunglasses, clutch and bag); and many other packages.
A special live/silent auction featured two items — a Disney World vacation at a condominium that sleeps eight, and four tickets to Missouri’s Oct. 22 football game against the Vanderbilt Commodores.
Cardiovascular disease is the No. 1 killer of women, causing one in three deaths each year, according to goredforwomen.org. About one woman dies of cardiovascular disease every minute. The disease doesn’t affect all women the same. Women’s warning signs may be different than those for men.
“The American Heart Association’s Go Red For Women movement advocates for more research and swifter action for women’s heart health for this very reason,” the Go Red for Women website says.
Diabetes, smoking, high blood pressure, high blood cholesterol, physical inactivity, obesity and a family history of heart disease are prevalent among Black people. The conditions are major risk factors for heart disease and stroke.
Women may be victims of “silent” heart attacks, in which heart attacks occur without the person knowing it. Symptoms of silent heart attacks may be no symptoms, minimal symptoms or unrecognized symptoms.
Patients may go to see their doctors because they experience fatigue or other problems related to heart disease and discover through an MRI or EKG that they’ve actually suffered a heart attack weeks or months before.
They may experience indigestion or flu-like symptoms, or may think they’ve strained a muscle in their upper chest or back. Discomfort may extend into their jaw or arms.
Macey Hurst, who works for Modern Litho and Brown Printing, said it was easy to be a part of the fundraiser.
“It’s an important conversation to be a part of,” Hurst said. “And, it’s a conversation that needs to happen more often with more women.”
Go Red for Women is a great place for the community to gather together to raise up women, she said.
Hurst said she interned with the Missouri Beef Industry Council, which has a close relationship with the American Heart Association.
“Lean beef is an important part of a heart-healthy diet,” she said.
Debora Grandison, an American Heart Association survivor story from about three years ago, returned to Jefferson City on Friday. She said she wanted to participate in the association’s event, but also wanted to celebrate Homecoming with her Blue Tiger family.
Grandison said she just completed her first book of inspirational poems and prayers, which started alongside her heart journey.
She started writing when she didn’t know what was happening to her, she said.
“I lost family members to diabetic heart issues. And was misdiagnosed,” she said. “I just started writing my thoughts down, my feelings down. It was just encouragement for myself.”
“His Poetry, Her Story” is available on Amazon.
Jefferson City was Grandison’s childhood home. She was keynote speaker during a Jefferson City Go Red for Women luncheon in 2019. On Sundays as a child, while her grandfather cleaned offices in the Missouri Capitol, Grandison would wander the halls, dancing in the Rotunda and singing at the top of her lungs.
During her second pregnancy, doctors gave her medications to halt delivery, but it tripled her heart rate and landed her in intensive care. She delivered a healthy son weeks later. Heart problems began to develop. The conditions went misdiagnosed for about 20 years, before a doctor realized she had cardiomyopathy, which caused her heart to not be able to efficiently pump blood to the rest of her body. She eventually received a pacemaker.
Grandison recently became a member of the advisory council for the national American Heart Association team.
“We’re working on the scientific research. It’s all about maternal health,” she said. “(Maternal health) is one of the reasons I’m so passionate about this new role I’m going to be taking on. Everything that happened to me happened during pregnancy.”