The National Eating Disorders Association will put on its annual walk on Saturday, Feb. 18 at 9 a.m. at the Highland Road Community Park to raise awareness and funds in support of those suffering from eating disorders.
The goal of the walk, according to the event’s Facebook page, is to raise $5,000 to support NEDA in accomplishing its goal to “envision a world without eating disorders,” according to its website.
“Just by raising awareness for it, we can promote a healthier community altogether,” said Courtney Tassin, a psychology junior heading Panhellenic relations for the Baton Rouge NEDA Walk.
According to NEDA’s website, 20 million women and 10 million men in the United States suffer from a clinically significant eating disorder at some time in their life. These eating disorders can include anorexia nervosa, bulimia nervosa or binge eating disorder.
To counteract these statistics, NEDA’s raised funds go toward education programs for early intervention, programs and services to support family members and advocacy programs that improve access to care, according to the NEDA website.
“So far this year, we’re really close to our goal,” Tassin said. “We have different kinds of programming for it this year. We’re having a [Panhellenic Council] event for all the sororities to come down to the Delta Gamma house … and there’s going to be yoga and speakers, a make-own-trail mix bar, and all kinds of fun stuff.”
On Wednesday, Feb. 8, Tassin and the Baton Rouge NEDA Walk will host a PHC event which will contribute to fundraising and raising awareness about the walk itself. While the event is hosted in the LSU Delta Gamma sorority house, the event is open to the public. The speakers for the event will also be talking on topics to raise awareness for eating disorders, Tassin said.
“If someone had an eating disorder that you were friends with or close with, you wouldn’t really know how to go about talking to them about it,” Tassin said. “So we’re going to have that kind of resource there, [as well as] resources just on the LSU campus.”
Tassin credits Anna Wright as the organizer for the event and for getting the sponsors down for the event. The entire process has taken around a year to plan and execute the walk.
Participants can expect to see yoga, speeches from those affected by eating disorders, raffle prizes including gift cards to restaurants and gift baskets from boutiques, in addition to the walk itself, Tassin said.
Nationally, NEDA hosts more than 40 walks to raise awareness and funds in support of their goal.
“Even people who struggle don’t even know there’s these resources out there for them,” Tassin said of the supportive efforts NEDA uses the donated funds for.
For more information on the walk, visit nedawalk.org/batonrouge2017.