ENID — St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center teamed up with the American Heart Association (AHA) to host the first annual HeartChase event in downtown Enid Saturday.

The team-based event featured a race between checkpoints where team members competed in games and learned “heart facts” about healthy lifestyles and heart disease prevention.

Forty team members on 10 teams took part in the event, which began and ended at David Allen Memorial Ballpark. The race course featured stations scattered around the downtown area and games that included tricycle races, a soccer obstacle course, water balloon races and basketball.

Jackie Kaiser, Enid HeartChase chairwoman, said the event was all about teaching people how to have fun with exercise and prevent heart disease.

“We just want people to learn some healthier ways to eat, and know that you can get out with your family and friends to exercise and make it fun,” Kaiser said. “We wanted to get the heart facts out to people and get them to realize that you don’t necessarily have to be on a treadmill in the gym to get exercise. You can get exercise just walking around town, and you can find ways to make exercise fun for yourself and your kids.”

Neta Raff and her husband Gary took advantage of that opportunity at HeartChase with their daughters, 2-year-old Hannah and 6-year-old Haley.

“It was fun because we got to involve the girls, and they got to do some of the competitive activities with us,” Raff said. “It was nice for us to be able to get some exercise and have fun together, and we really enjoyed it.”

Raff said she and her husband exercise with their children on a daily basis, but they still saw HeartChase as a valuable experience for their whole family.

“It was great for the girls to hear about keeping your heart healthy,” Raff said. “You can never start too early learning about healthy living, so it was great for them.”

Event organizers stressed the importance of getting their heart-healthy message out to people before heart disease takes hold.

“We see the effects of heart disease every day, and it’s just important for us to step up to the plate if we want the community to be more aware and more involved in preventing heart disease,” said St. Mary’s marketing director Cyndy Shepherd.

Stan Tatum, CEO of St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center, said heart disease is “probably the biggest threat facing our community today as far as health is concerned.”

“Cardiovascular services is one of our busiest service lines,” Tatum said. “Heart disease is the No. 1 cause of death in the U.S. It kills more people than the next six causes of death combined.

“HeartChase was a great opportunity to get out and educate the public about those risks and the fact that it’s never too late to start improving your health, to start eating healthier, exercising and doing some good things to prevent heart disease.”

Corinna Reed works in the cardiac catheterization lab at St. Mary’s, where patients suffering from heart disease and heart attack come for treatment. She said she and her coworkers are seeing heart disease in younger patients now than in the past due to unhealthy living habits.

“We hate seeing people come in younger and younger with heart disease,” Reed said. “We’re seeing people in their 30s and 40s come in having heart attacks, and that’s very sad. We can do a lot diagnostically to evaluate heart disease and to treat heart attacks ... but ultimately, we’d much rather prevent heart attacks.”

Reed said simple changes in exercise and eating habits could go a long way towards reducing the incidence of heart disease in the community. She and her coworkers were busy Saturday serving HeartChase team members a “heart-healthy meal” of brisket, whole wheat rolls and grilled vegetables.

“If we can help educate people and show them how simple it is to eat healthy and live a healthier lifestyle, we could see a lot less of diabetes, morbid obesity and have a lot fewer heart attacks,” Reed said.

Enid mayor Bill Shewey understands well the threat of heart disease and the need for awareness campaigns like HeartChase.

“This cause is very close to my heart — pun intended,” Shewey said. His grandmother, mother and brother all died from heart disease before the age of 60, and he is a heart disease survivor.

“Heart disease runs in my family, and I probably wouldn’t be here today if it weren’t for the work the American Heart Association does in research and awareness,” Shewey said. “If you can reach just one person with an event like this, it’s all worth it.”

In addition to raising awareness, HeartChase also surpassed organizers’ goals for fundraising, bringing in more than $14,000 for AHA research and treatment initiatives.

Shepherd said organizers will meet with AHA representatives next week to begin planning HeartChase for next year, and they plan to make it an annual event in Enid.