With pandemic restrictions in place, people can't gather this year to support the American Heart Association through the Butler/Warren County Heart Walk, but the need for support is as important this year as it is any other year.
Financial donations have shifted this year since the American Heart Association donated $8.4 million to doctors who have been working on COVID-19 research. Donations like that, and the cancellation of events due to the pandemic, have slowed down funding for the research of other heart-related illnesses.
However, for people like Margaret Martin, who has been raising money for the association and participating in the event for the last 23 years, the walk is personal.
Martin's mother died of a heart attack, and her brother is still recovering from a stroke. While Martin can't walk and support the organization as she is used to, officials with the American Heart Association said Martin is still helping the cause.
"She has actually raised over $100,000 in her 23 years of participation with this heart walk," Tricia Sunders, the development director for the American Heart Association, said. "She's very passionate about this heart walk. She gets people very vested in her work and her excitement. She literally hand-writes letters and sends them out to her supporters..."
If you would like to support the Butler/Warren County Heart Walk, the American Heart Association asks that you get out and walk around your own neighborhood this weekend. They also ask that since people can't be all together that you take pictures of your walk and post them online with #BWCHeartWalk.
For more information on the walk, you can click here.
