Community Benefit

The 12th annual Soul Stroll for Health Walk will be held on Saturday, May 18, from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Coyote Point Park, San Mateo. There will be one-, three- and five-mile courses marked along the beautiful bay-front path in San Mateo’s Coyote Point Park. 

The African American Community Health Advisory Committee (AACHAC) organizes the annual event to raise awareness of the benefits of good nutrition and exercise in preventing heart disease and diabetes. 

Triathlete Aaron Perry is this year’s celebrity chairperson.

This year’s event will feature celebrity chairperson Aaron G. Perry, the world’s first African American diabetic Ironman. An Ironman Triathlon consists of a 2.4–mile swim, a 112–mile bike ride and a 26.2–mile run, a grueling test of strength and endurance. A pioneer in the area of diabetes and exercise to communities of color, Perry is the president and founder of Rebalanced-Life Wellness Association, a nonprofit organization dedicated to changing the culture of wellness within communities of color. In 2008, he wrote “Through the Storm,” the story of his personal Ironman Triathlon triumph.

Estimated participation is 2,000-2,500 people of all ages. Register online to participate in his year’s Soul Stroll for Health.

The Health Walk will also feature free health screenings and information, children’s activities, as well as a continental breakfast and lunch. There is free but limited parking so carpooling is encouraged. Registration is $15 per person ($20 day-of) and proceeds help to fund the African American Community Health Advisory Committee’s work, including free health screenings and education throughout the year. Registered participants age five and older receive a free commemorative T-shirt, refreshments, gifts and other prizes. There is free admission for children under five.

Also appearing at the Soul Stroll for Health is Dominique Wilkins, retired basketball celebrity. Wilkens, who primarily played for the Atlanta Hawks of the NBA, was a nine-time NBA All-Star, and one of the best dunkers in NBA history.

NBA All-Star Dominique Wilkins (Photo: NBA)

This is the 12th consecutive Soul Stroll for Health, created with a special focus on improving health in the African American, Hispanic and Pacific Islander populations in San Mateo County through good nutrition and physical activity.  This year, the AACHAC will recognize the work of the African Women’s Development Fund USA at the Soul Stroll.

This popular annual event is sponsored in partnership with Mills-Peninsula Health Services.

Contact:

Gloria Brown, 650-696-4378; BrownG1@sutterhealth.org

April 29 Event Funds Local Breast Health Programs

The 12th Annual Mills-Peninsula Women’s Health Luncheon and Lecture, on Monday, April 29, will feature a lecture by award-winning author and columnist Anna Quindlen, entitled, “Is 60 the New 40: Middle-age or Midlife? A Short Guide to a Happy Life and Other Words of Wisdom.”

Quindlen is an award-winning author, journalist and opinion columnist.

The event will be at the San Francisco Airport Marriott Waterfront Hotel at 1800 Old Bayshore Highway in Burlingame. Registration begins at 11 a.m., and the luncheon and lecture run from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. A book signing will follow the lecture. The event is expected to draw a capacity crowd of 1,000 attendees. The registration deadline is April 22, 2013, but the event is already nearly booked. Limited tickets are still available for $150 each.

All proceeds from this event will benefit the Mills-Peninsula’s Women’s Center along with the Breast Health Program, which serves women in San Mateo County. Last year’s program raised more than $400,000, which funded nursing education and other services in the Women’s Health Center, including free mammograms and continuing care for the uninsured and underserved women in the community.

The mission of the Mills-Peninsula Hospital Foundation is to steward local health care philanthropy and fund new equipment, facility improvements, nursing education and enhance patient comfort, safety, services and programs that exceed the hospital’s normal operating budget, providing a margin of excellence to our patients.

The Master of Ceremonies will be John Loder, president of the Mills-Peninsula Hospital Foundation.

The presenting sponsors of this event are Carole Middleton on behalf of The Middleton Foundation, and Zelda Levin. Co-chairs of this event are Linda Cooperman, Ph.D., Peggy Bort Jones and Dayna Sumiyoshi.

More about Anna Quindlen

Over the last 30 years, Anna Quindlen’s work has appeared in some of America’s most influential newspapers, many of its best-known magazines, and on both fiction and non-fiction bestseller lists. Quindlen is an author, journalist and opinion columnist whose New York Times column, Public and Private, won the Pulitzer Prize for Commentary in 1992. She began her journalism career in 1974 as a reporter for the New York Post. Between 1977 and 1994 she held several posts at The New York Times.  Quindlen left journalism in 1995 to become a full-time novelist. In 1999, she joined Newsweek, and wrote a bi-weekly column until semi-retiring in 2009. Quindlen is known as a critic of what she perceives to be the fast-paced and increasingly materialistic nature of modern American life. Much of her personal writing centers on her mother who died at the age of 40 from ovarian cancer, when Quindlen was 19 years old.

She has written five best-selling novels, three of which have been made into movies, including “One True Thing” in 1998. With the release of A Short Guide to a Happy Life in 2000, Quindlen became the first writer ever to have books appear on the fiction, nonfiction and self-help New York Times Best Seller lists.

Her most recent book is a memoir entitled “Lots of Candles, Plenty of Cake.” In it, Quindlen considers marriage, mothers, faith, loss, friendships and turning 60.

Media Contact:

Karen Malekos-Smith, Mills-Peninsula director of Major Donor Relations, 650-696-5908; malekok@sutterhealth.org

Art Contest Deadline is March 22, 2013

Everyone plays an important role in ensuring all children are safe from bullying – including young people themselves, but not everyone knows how. To help people learn coping techniques and strategies to overcome and end bullying of all kinds, the  African American Community Health Advisory Committee (AACHAC) in partnership with Mills-Peninsula Health Services, is sponsoring a half-day, anti-bullying workshop for youth, teens and parents called, “Bullies Tear Down, Friends Build Up!” 

The free community workshop will be held on Saturday, March 30, 2013, from 8:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m., at  Mills Health Center’s Hendrickson Auditorium at 100 S. San Mateo Drive in San Mateo, Calif.

Workshop Topics Include:

• Race-related Bullying

• Sexual Orientation Bullying

• Relationship Abuse

“The AACHAC is committed to hearing the voices in our community,” said Shaunda Scruggs of the AACHAC.  “In the past few years, the topic of bullying has come up again and again, so we felt it necessary to meet the need. This interactive program will instruct youth and their parents, and share the resources available in the community.”

The keynote speaker is Shakeel Ali. Ali is the creator of the Stop Bullying System Program, co-founder of Ask Academy (Alternative School of Knowledge Academy), and president of the Governing Board of Education for the Jefferson Elementary School District. He has also been a national trainer with Ripple Effects, an anti-bulling youth training effort.

Admission to this event is free. For more information, email info@aachac.org or call 650-696-4378. To register, visit the AACHAC website: www.aachac.org.

Anti-Bullying Multi-Media Art Contest

Prior to the “Bullies Tear Down, Friends Build Up!” event, AACHAC is sponsoring an anti-bullying multi-media art contest for visual arts and social media for students ages 8-18. Entries can be submitted individually or by groups. Deadline for submissions is March 22 at 5 p.m. Winning entries will be announced and prizes presented at the March 30 event. More contest details are available online.

The anti-bullying workshop partners are Mills-Peninsula Health Services, Genentech and the County of San Mateo Health Department.

The community is invited to join in a healthy day of walking and getting fit at the annual Soul Stroll for Health on Saturday, May 19, at San Mateo County’s 670-acre Coyote Point Recreation area. The event begins at 9 a.m. and continues until 1 p.m.

This is the 11th consecutive Soul Stroll for Health, created with a special focus on improving health in the African American, Hispanic and Pacific Islander populations in San Mateo County through good nutrition and physical activity. This popular annual event is sponsored by the African American Community Health Advisory Committee (AACHAC) in partnership with Mills-Peninsula Health Services.

The celebrity chair this year is fitness expert Dr. Ian Smith.  He has served as the medical/diet expert for six seasons on VH1’s highly-rated Celebrity Fit Club, is the creator and founder of “The 50 Million Pound Challenge,” and is a medical contributor on the nationally syndicated television show Rachael Ray. Dr. Smith is also the host of his own nationally syndicated radio show “Health Watch” on American Urban Radio Networks.

Everyone is welcome to walk, run or stroll along the one-, three- or five-mile course. There will be a kids’ zone, free health screenings and entertainment. Estimated participation is 2,000-2,500 people. Online registration is encouraged.

For more information, please contact AACHAC Executive Director Gloria Brown at (650) 696-4378.

College Park Elementary School of San Mateo is planting an American Heart Association Teaching Garden. It is part of an education initiative to help build healthy bodies and minds.

The Plant Day Celebration, to be held on Thursday, March 15 at College Park Elementary, will feature a performance by the school choir and a “produce market” where students can select a vegetable with a healthy recipe to take home. Special guests include Ticker the giant heart and his friends, the Produce Posse. Read More about Student Gardens Grow Positive Attitudes about Fruits, Vegetables

Mills-Peninsula Health Services and UCSF Diabetes Center are co-sponsoring the annual Diabetes Symposium and Kids’ Kamp on Saturday, March, 10, 2012. The event will be held at Robertson Auditorium at UCSF Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco, from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Parents of children with diabetes and their families are invited to attend and learn about the latest treatments, new technologies on the horizon and strategies for managing the disease. Read More about UCSF, Mills-Peninsula Co-sponsor Diabetes Symposium & Kids’ Kamp