Walking Kidney Warriors

Description:

This is a kidney disease awareness walk with a carnival that includes jump houses, carnival games and educational information at each game station. We will work with the local hospitals and specialty clinics to provide information about co-morbidities associated with dialysis, and offer blood pressure and blood glucose checks. We will serve fun carnival food as well as kidney friendly food for free.

Purpose:

Our purpose is to educate the young and the mature about kidney disease and the importance of monitoring blood pressure, blood sugar, and maintaining regular doctor visits in order to identify and possibly slow the progression of kidney disease. We will introduce REACH Kidney Care and discuss how REACH serves the community with education and care coordination.

Conclusion:

The Kidney Walking Warrior’s Project was well organized from the beginning to the end. It brought awareness to how kidney disease can silently manifest through many other health issues that, if left untreated, can contribute to kidney failure.

The event started with a welcome and introduction of purpose and acknowledgement of our medical directors and area operations director. The following vendors provided education: Glory Hospice, Emory Transplant, Piedmont Transplant, Phenix Regional Rehab and Brodwynn & Associates Chiropractor.

Other vendors that contributed to our event included: Paparizzi, Local Boutiques and Great Philly Phreaze.

Volunteers and students from Columbus Technical College nursing department were available to give assistance with blood pressure monitoring. Our own REACH Kidney Care team discussed kidney disease, its progression, and ways to manage it.

The Kidney Walking Warriors started the walk at 1:30 led by Libby White, dietician with options for a 2 or 3 mile walk.  The walk was awesome.

This was truly a family event. The children enjoyed the inflatables, face painting and sun chaser painting. The parents moved from vendor to vendor talking and asking questions. There were hourly drawings with prizes just for attending and being a part of the event. The event gained media awareness with WTVM our local news interviewing patients as well as staff. The hot dogs and hamburger were hot off the grill with chips and cookies served by DCI staff.

The individuals who attended the event were shocked by the kidney disease facts and appropriately educated about how to maintain their kidney health during the event.

The event was a great success. We accomplished our goal to raise awareness of kidney disease.