Tomorrow, I will join Mayor Catherine E. Pugh to launch Baltimore’s Billion Step Challenge. Over the past few months, Assistant Commissioner of Chronic Disease Prevention Greg Sileo and his team collaborated with business partners, community-based organizations, and neighborhood groups toward the goal of activating residents’ physical health and to accumulate one billion steps by July 2018.

Chronic illnesses such as heart disease and diabetes contribute to some of the most pressing health disparities in Baltimore. In Healthy Baltimore 2020, our strategic blueprint for health and wellness in Baltimore City, we aim to cut health disparities in half over the next ten years. The Billion Step Challenge will help us to reach that goal.

During the next year, we will host health challenges and events in communities across Baltimore to encourage physical activity. Please visit baltimorebillion.com for information about health and wellness as well as a calendar and database of events and resources.

We hope that you can join us Saturday, July 29th from 10am-2pm for a day of fun activities with live music and entertainment, health screenings and resources, and a family-friendly run/walk around the beautiful Lake Montebello.

Also this week, we announced a new grant from the AARP Foundation to partner with the American Heart Association and No Boundaries Coalition to provide healthy food for low-income Baltimore City seniors. It is impossible to ask people to keep healthy when they don’t have options to do so. With the support of our partners, we can invest in solutions and work together to level the playing field so that our older adults can choose healthy options to reduce the risk of high blood pressure, diabetes and heart disease. 

At BCHD, we are fighting the epidemic of chronic disease, one step at a time. Thank you for your support and we hope to see you tomorrow morning at Lake Montebello!

Sincerely,

Leana S. Wen, M.D., M.Sc.

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