By Delores Jones
Kansas City, MO – A number of stories on KC Currents have addressed health problems that disproportionately effect people of color: heart disease, AIDS, diabetes, depression and others. Tommy Amico looks at these statistics every say, as HIV/AIDS resource coordinator for US Department of Health and Human Services Region VII, which is headquartered here in Kansas City.
Tommy Amico and his colleagues at the regional Health and Human Services offices decided to rally the city's health and fitness providers, more than 150 of them, for a day-long festival at Parade Park, 18th and Vine, this Saturday, July 29. Their main partner is the Samuel Rodgers Community Health Center, which already sponsored an annual health screening event. Health providers will offer free screenings for everything from cholesterol and diabetes to prostate cancer and HIV.
The Kansas City Health and Fitness Festival includes many people and organizations that have been teaching athletics for a long time, and some entertainers. There will also be a focus on dance in African American culture, including a performance by the McFadden brothers, related film screenings and a panel discussion, which KC Currents host Delores Jones will be moderating.
Hear previous KC Currents interviews with festival participants:
Kenneth Walker, who run an African-American bike club.
Rodney Thompson and Stenson McClendon, film-makers who documented the Kansas City Two-Step.