Every year, citizens of eastern Maine have numerous opportunities to support worthy community causes. This year, I’m asking residents to make a lasting impression by joining in the American Heart Association’s fight against heart disease and stroke at the upcoming Bangor Heart Walk.

In 1924, the American Heart Association was founded by a group of six cardiologists who had the foresight to see cardiovascular disease as a critical public health issue. Research funded by this organization has yielded important discoveries such as CPR, life-extending drugs, pacemakers, bypass surgery, and surgical techniques to repair heart defects.

In 1989, at age 48, I received a heart transplant. As a life beneficiary of extensive research, I am fairly characterized as an aging poster child of Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, and the American Heart Association.

Do you know someone who has had a heart attack or stroke? Have you heard about Operation Heartbeat, the Bangor coalition committed to distributing AED’s (automated external defibrillators) to first responders within a 25 mile radius of Bangor? Do you know about the behind the scenes advocacy to keep Maine’s tobacco settlement dollars designated for community smoking prevention programs and other health related initiatives? If you said yes to any of these questions, then you have been touched by the American Heart Association.

Heart disease and stroke are Maine’s No. 1 and 3 killers. At the American Heart Walk we not only educate people about how to prevent these diseases, but also raise funds to support lifesaving research, (at places like The Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor) and community based educational programs, like the “Stroke Symposium” and “Women and Heart Health,” that make the difference-every day.

Please join us for the Bangor Heart Walk on Sunday, Oct. 28, at the Bangor YMCA Health and Fitness Center on the Taft Road in Bangor. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m. The Walk steps off at 10 a.m.

People of all ages can join in the fun. We salute Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Northeast Cardiology Associates, Eastern Maine Medical Center and St. Joseph Hospital as our top sponsors. Their teams of walkers will join teams from other area businesses, and together we will step out along the route that helps fight heart disease and stroke in eastern Maine.

You can still enter a team (business, group, church, family), or join us as an individual walker and help us raise desperately needed funds. In return for the effort, each walker who raises $100 or more will earn great thank-you prizes and is eligible to win other prizes donated by businesses in our region.

Please call Deb Farnham, Bangor regional director, at 848-2888, or 800-648-2041, extension 4604, for more information and a team packet or walker envelope. Walker envelopes are also available on walk day.

Join me in stepping out to make a lasting impression in the fight against heart disease and stroke.

Tom Brown, an attorney with Eaton, Peabody, Bradford & Veague, is honorary chair of the Bangor American Heart Walk.