Over 1,500 volunteers gathered at the Cal State University Bakersfield Amphitheatre for Kern County’s American Heart Association’s annual Heart Walk on Oct. 17. The volunteers were to either walk or run five kilometers (just over three miles) in support of research for heart health and services in Kern County.

On the day, the event managed to raise $212,000 as Orlando Velasquez came away with the lowest time of the event with a time of 20 minutes 59 seconds. Keenan Skarr and Jeff Travis would come in second and third with times of 21:17 and 21:43, respectively, to round out the top three runners.

Kelly Cavanaugh finished first for the women as she came in with a time of 25:14 to finish seventh overall. It was the brother-sister duo of Nate and Laurie Wren that caught the attention of the spectators.

Laurie Wren is a 17-year-old survivor of multiple heart failures that ultimately cost her the use of her legs. Laurie, however, would not let that stop her from participating in the day’s events.

“I wanted their respect, everyone they kind of looked down on me just because I’m in a wheelchair. Not realizing I’m still determined to do great things,” said Laurie.

Realizing his sister would need help to run in the event, Nate, 25, pushed the younger Wren sibling the entire 5k course while sporting a black-and-yellow leotard in support of his sponsor Rangel Chiropractic.

“I knew she still wanted this; that she still wanted to complete. Plus, I do these anyway. I just ran the Relay for Life, which is 24 hours of non-stop running,” said Nate.

The Wrens weren’t the only dynamic-duo of the event as Alyssa Laura, 7, and Austin Kalli, 29, admitted that the best part of these two days was helping others. Alyssa, who was the youngest runner in the field, still managed to finish in the top 20 with a time of 32:42 seconds while raising $400 thanks to Motor City.

“No matter what, you can never give up on running or anything. No matter how hard, me and my mommy are just going to do what we can to help,” said Alyssa.

The runners, however, were not the only source of revenue for the event as many local businesses set up booths donating a portion of their proceeds to the heart health fund here in Kern County. “Yes I would say the event was a success, but we’ve got a lot to do here in Kern County,” said event coordinator Julie Liebel. “Did you know that Kern County has the highest death-rate per capita of heart-related incidents in California? We are overweight, we have high cholesterol and we smoke a lot. These are problems.”

According to Liebel, the primary cause of this is a lack of funding for Kern County’s heart health research with the county being ranked last in California at 58 out of 58 counties. “It’s a problem,” said Liebel.