From left, Tonya Cline, Tracy Gault, Michelle Gillespie and Candy Gillespie pose for a photo taken by Cassie Kernel at the Galentine’s Day Heart Luncheon hosted by the Camden Clark Foundation. (Photo by Gwen Sour)

PARKERSBURG – More than 200 women packed the Wood County Resiliency Center on Friday for the Camden Clark Foundation’s annual Healthy Heart Lunch — a Valentine’s-adjacent celebration billed this year as a “Galentine’s Day Heart Luncheon” and focused on the ways heart disease can look different in women.

“It truly is a celebration of women’s healthy hearts,” said Kim Couch, executive director of the foundation, describing the event as a chance to pause during American Heart Month and focus on wellness.

Couch said the luncheon also works to spotlight a key message: Women don’t always experience the “obvious elephant-on-the-chest” symptoms commonly associated with heart attacks in men.

Couch said the foundation’s cardiology fund supports patient care beyond the hospital walls by investing in equipment and at-home tools.

The foundation recently purchased an EKG system for the St. Marys office, she said, and it also provides items aimed at helping patients manage congestive heart failure after discharge – including “talking” bathroom scales and blood pressure cuffs.

From left, Robin Baylous peruses Cat Lang-Bigley’s wares during the Camden Clark Foundation’s Galentine’s Day Heart Luncheon on Friday. (Photo by Gwen Sour)

“If you have even a two to three pound weight gain within the first 72 hours of going home, you could be cascading back into congestive heart failure,” Couch said.

She said coaches follow up with patients at home and the talking scales are designed to be easy to use, including for patients who may have difficulty reading the display.

United Way Alliance of the Mid-Ohio Valley Executive Director Stacy DeCicco said her organization attends the luncheon each year because it aligns with United Way’s focus on healthy communities and partnerships.

“Healthy communities are always a priority for us at United Way,” DeCicco said, calling WVU Medicine “one of the strongest partnerships that we have in the community.” She said the event offers an opportunity to connect with people United Way might not reach in other settings and highlighted the organization’s 211 resource line as “a conduit to any information and resource that you’re looking for in the community.

“You can pick up the phone and dial 211, and we’re going to tell you what’s available,” DeCicco said. “You’re going to get a live conversation.”

Camden Clark Foundation Executive Director Kim Couch welcomes attendees to the Galentine’s Day Heart Luncheon at the Wood County Resiliency Center Friday afternoon. (Photo by Gwen Sour)

For the first time, the luncheon also featured vendors from various female-led businesses across the Mid-Ohio Valley. Cat Lang-Bigley, who owns SWAGG Collective, said it was nice to see women-owned businesses invited and it was great to be recognized after reopening her business.

Clinical speakers from WVU Medicine Camden Clark Medical Center’s Heart and Vascular Institute emphasized that women’s symptoms can be subtle — and easy to brush aside. Nurse practitioners Tammy Burton and Emily Howell, who work with Camden Clark’s cardiology team, urged attendees to take changes in health or habits seriously, especially when symptoms don’t match the “classic” narrative.

“Shortness of breath or fatigue could be a symptom too,” Burton said, adding that women may disregard warning signs or chalk them up to aging, weight gain or a busy schedule.

Howell said that tendency can delay care.

“They’re just too busy taking care of all the other things in their lives,” she said, describing how some women put symptoms off until “later,” even when later never comes.

From left, Tammy Burton and Emily Howell give a presentation on diastolic heart failure during the Galentine’s Day Heart Luncheon hosted by the Camden Clark Foundation at the Wood County Resiliency Center on Friday. (Photo by Gwen Sour)

Among the symptoms they urged women to watch for: chest pain and shortness of breath — especially with exertion — as well as nausea, sweating, fatigue, dizziness and arm pain that can occur in either arm, not just the left. The clinicians also stressed prevention steps such as exercise, diet changes and blood pressure control. Burton said the clinic’s goal is blood pressure “less than 130 over 80,” and encouraged movement most days of the week.

Stacey Houser, program manager for WVU Medicine Camden Clark’s Health and Human Performance program Thrive and founder of the Temple Challenge, tied physical health to mindfulness and community support. “Movement is medicine,” Houser told the crowd, urging women to build activity into their week in realistic increments. She also led attendees through a short, seated exercise burst.

Couch told the crowd the heart-focused fundraising continues later this month. Organizers invited attendees back to the Wood County Resiliency Center on Feb. 28 for the foundation’s Heart Ball, which will feature entertainment from a dueling piano group, with a full band and saxophone player.

Gwen Sour can be reached at gsour@newsandsentinel.com.

Stacy Houser gives a presentation on the Thrive health and human performance program at the Camden Clark Foundation’s Galentine’s Day Heart Luncheon Friday. (Photo by Gwen Sour)