In partnership with the American Heart Association, Marian Medical Center and French Hospital Medical Center will be joining together to encourage healthy lifestyles for employees and the local community in the celebration of National Start! Walking Day tomorrow.

National Start! Walking Day is sponsored by the American Heart Association and encourages employers to promote walking routes for employees to utilize during work breaks.

Both French Hospital Medical Center and Marian Medical Centerwill be hosting separate rally walking events tomorrow. 

French Hospital Medical Center’s National Start! Walking Day rally is a community event and will begin at 12 p.m. within the hospital’s Fitness Zone, 1911 Johnson Ave., San Luis Obispo.

Mayor Dave Romero will open the event with a special message to attendees. Following the San Luis Obispo Mayor’s speech French Hospital Medical Center employees and community members will begin a half-mile walk along the hospital’s Start! Walking Trail.

The event will also feature fitness demonstrations from Kennedy Club Fitness trainers, free Subway sandwich giveaways to the first 50 attending walkers, music, entertainment and heart healthy information. 

Marian Medical Center’s National Start! Walking Day rally will begin at 10 a.m. with a special awards presentation on the hospital’s front lawn, 1400 East Church Street, Santa Maria.

The event will continue at 10:15 a.m. with Marian Medical Center employees taking a walk around the hospital on one of the facility’s various walking routes.

“Marian Medical Center and French Hospital Medical Center have partnered with the American Heart Association as premier cause sponsors for the Start! program, a national campaign that calls on all Americans and their employers to create a culture of physical activity and wellness in order to live longer, heart-healthy lives,” says Julia Nagy, Executive Director of the American Heart Association’s Tri-Counties Division. “We are excited that both Marian and French are providing this support to our community and leading by example by hosting National Start! Walking Day rallies on a local level to encourage our local communities to start living healthier lives.”

The American Heart Association’s Start! program promotes workplace wellness through the encouragement of walking.

Heart disease is the number one killer in the United States and physical inactivity doubles the risk of heart disease. Start! offers numerous tools to help individuals commit to their exercise and walking plans to reduce their risk of developing heart disease.

The Start! website, www.startwalkingnow.org, offers downloadable walking plans and walking resources in an effort to reduce heart disease and prolong life expectancy.