Mayo Clinic to Celebrate National Wear Red Day
on February 6, 2009

Wednesday, February 04, 2009

WHAT: Mayo Clinic will celebrate National Wear Red Day on February 6th, when people nationwide wear red to support awareness of women's heart disease. Heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women.

In 2003, the Heart Truth — a national awareness campaign about heart disease — launched the red dress as the national symbol for women and heart disease.

WHEN: 11:45 a.m.: Community members are invited to walk for their hearts with Rochester Mayor Ardell Brede from the City Hall Atrium to the Gonda Building's Landow Atrium.

Noon: Mayo Clinic employees will walk from the Dan Abraham Healthy Living Center through skyways and subways to the Gonda Building's Landow Atrium.

12:20 p.m.: Program with remarks by Sharonne Hayes, M.D., director of Mayo Clinic Women's Heart Clinic; Mayor Brede and Minnesota First Lady Mary Pawlenty.*

12:50 p.m.: Group photo of employees and guests wearing red clothing and red dress pins.

WHERE: The program will take place in the atrium of the Gonda Building's Landow Atrium, 100 Third Ave. S.W.

*All speakers will be available for interviews following the group photo.

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About Mayo Clinic

Mayo Clinic is the first and largest integrated, not-for-profit group practice in the world. Doctors from every medical specialty work together to care for patients, joined by common systems and a philosophy of "the needs of the patient come first." More than 3,700 physicians, scientists and researchers, and 50,100 allied health staff work at Mayo Clinic, which has campuses in Rochester, Minn; Jacksonville, Fla; and Scottsdale/Phoenix, Ariz.; and community-based providers in more than 70 locations in southern Minnesota., western Wisconsin and northeast Iowa. These locations treat more than half a million people each year. To obtain the latest news releases from Mayo Clinic, go to www.mayoclinic.org/news. For information about research and education, visit www.mayo.edu. MayoClinic.com (www.mayoclinic.com) is available as a resource for your health stories.