Tavis Smiley's “Road
to Health”
events in Oakland May 11 and 12
From the Globe Health
Desk
National
TV-radio personality and author Tavis Smiley
will be in Oakland this weekend to get residents
here to start thinking about their health.
Smiley
will host a health and fitness expo at the Oakland
Marriott Convention Center May 11 and then lead
a walk-athon May 12. The expo is set for 8:30
a.m.; the walk is slated to begin at 10 a.m.
“The ‘Road
to Health’television and radio series promotes
the benefits of health and fitness and to help
communities of color develop healthier lifestyles,” said
Smiley.
The tour, sponsored by Kaiser
Permanente, is a two-day, multicity health, fitness, and
wellness expo featuring local and national celebrities,
seminars for youth, men and women, dance and
nutrition demonstrations, medical screenings, CPR
certification training and a blood drive, cardio
zone for kids, and a walk-a-thon. “This tour
was created for communities of color to address
health from a cultural perspective and to show
that simple changes in diet and lifestyle can lead
to a healthier life,” said Smiley. “People
often think an intervention has to be a new drug
or something really high-tech and expensive in
order to be powerful. They often have a hard time
believing that the simple choices that we make
in our lives every day (can work).
“What
we eat, how we respond to stress, whether or not
we smoke, and how much we exercise can make such
a powerful difference in our health, our well-being,
and even our survival,” he said.
“Road
to Health” is the first traveling broadcast
series aimed at communities of color to promote
the benefits of health and fitness and to help
communities of color develop healthier lifestyles.
Mayor Ron Dellums, the Oakland City Council, the
Oakland Unified School District and the Alameda
County Board of Supervisors have joined Smiley
in encouraging East Bay residents to make a personal
commitment to improve their health and wellness.
Smiley, Dellums, and Congresswoman Barbara Lee
will take a quarter-mile walk with 4,500 students
Friday inside the expo hall. Following his walk,
Smiley will moderate a symposium at 10 a.m. in
the Calvin Simmons Ballroom on “Eliminating
Childhood Obesity in Communities and Schools.” The
symposium is sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson
Foundation.
The first day of the expo is aimed
at youth, ages 11-14 and seniors, and will feature
a variety of fitness demonstrations, workshops
on meal and snack selection, seminars to build
self-esteem, and activities designed to show how
exercise can be fun. The kid’s activities
will also include a cardio zone featuring rock
climbing, tennis, golf, urban playground activities,
and exercise video games.
Nutritionists, fitness
experts and health conscious celebrities will be
on hand each day to share their knowledge on how
they make healthier life style choices every day.
The second day focuses on family health and fitness
and is targeted to African-American and Hispanic
adults, ages 18-65. Featured seminar topics include
HIV/AIDS, diabetes, exercise, diet and nutrition,
senior health, and prenatal care.
Youth health
day activities include a health industry career
cafe that will provide advice from experts in the
fields of nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, and more.
Mobile screening and testing units will offer screenings
to youth on BMI, height and weight, pulse rate,
vision health, asthma, and bone density. On both
days, adult screenings will include blood pressure,
cholesterol, glucose, HIV/AIDS, dental, and glaucoma.
Fitness expert Donna Richardson Joyner and other
celebrities will perform and lead walk-a-thons
on Saturday, as will Smiley.
Taking a holistic
approach to family wellness, “Road to Health” offers
seminars and exhibits tailored to natural and alternative
approaches to healing the mind and body, and introduce
new ways to use food for nutritional and medicinal
purposes. Several workshops will feature Spanish-speaking
instructors along with Spanish language materials.
“Kaiser
Permanente is proud to be the title sponsor of
the 2007 Road to Health tour. African Americans
and Latinos have a unique culture and a different
set of risks for specific diseases. We want to
address these needs in a meaningful way that resonates
with cultural values and we want to offer tools
for managing health and preventing disease,” said
Bernard Tyson, senior vice president of Health
Plan and Hospital Operations, Kaiser Foundation
Health Plan, Inc.
Road to Health is free and open
to the public. All attendees must register online
at http://www.roadtohealthtour.com/ or on site.
