The Road to Health tour, sponsored by Kaiser Permanente, is a two-day, multi-city health, fitness, and wellness expo featuring local and national celebrities, seminars for youth, men and women, dance and nutrition demonstrations, medical screenings, CPR certification training and a blood drive, cardio zone for kids, and a ¼ mile walk-a-thon.

Road to Health is the first traveling broadcast (radio and television) series aimed at communities of color to promote the benefits of health and fitness and to help communities of color develop healthier lifestyles. On Friday, May 11th at 9:30am Smiley, Mayor Ron Dellums, and Congresswoman Barbara Lee will take a ¼ mile walk with 4,500 students inside the expo hall. Following his walk, Smiley will moderate a symposium at 10am in the Calvin Simmons Ballroom on “Eliminating Childhood Obesity in Communities and Schools”. The symposium is sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Road to Health is free and open to the public. All attendees must register online at www.roadtohealthtour.com or on site.

Mayor Ron Dellums, the Oakland City Council, the Oakland Unified School District and the Alameda County Board of Supervisors have joined broadcaster Tavis Smiley in encouraging East Bay residents to make a personal commitment to improve their health and wellness.

“This tour was created for communities of color to address health from a cultural perspective and to show that simple changes in diet and lifestyle can lead to a healthier life,” said Smiley. “People often think an intervention has to be a new drug or something really high-tech and expensive in order to be powerful. They often have a hard time believing that the simple choices that we make in our lives every day—what we eat, how we respond to stress, whether or not we smoke, and how much we exercise—can make such a powerful difference in our health, our well-being, and even our survival. But they often do.”

The first day of the expo is aimed at youth, ages 11–14 and seniors, and will feature a variety of fitness demonstrations, workshops on meal and snack selection, seminars to build self-esteem, and activities designed to show how exercise can be fun. The kid’s activities will include a cardio zone featuring rock climbing, tennis, golf, urban playground activities, and exercise video games.

Nutritionists, fitness experts and health conscious celebrities will be on hand each day to share their knowledge on how they make healthier life style choices every day.

The second day focuses on family health and fitness and is targeted to African American and Hispanic adults, ages 18–65. Featured seminar topics include HIV/AIDS, diabetes, exercise, diet and nutrition, senior health, and prenatal care.

Fitness expert Donna Richardson Joyner and other celebrities will perform and lead walk-a-thons on Saturday. Smiley will also lead a walk-a-thon on Saturday.

Taking a holistic approach to family wellness, Road to Health offers seminars and exhibits tailored to natural and alternative approaches to healing the mind and body, and introduce new ways to use food for nutritional and medicinal purposes. Several workshops will feature Spanish-speaking instructors along with Spanish language materials.

"Kaiser Permanente is proud to be the title sponsor of the 2007 Road to Health tour. African Americans and Latinos have a unique culture and a different set of risks for specific diseases. We want to address these needs in a meaningful way that resonates with cultural values and we want to offer tools for managing health and preventing disease," said Bernard Tyson, senior vice president of Health Plan and Hospital Operations, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc.

Youth health day activities include a health industry career cafe that will provide advice from experts in the fields of nursing, dentistry, pharmacy, and more. Mobile screening and testing units will offer screenings to youth on BMI, height and weight, pulse rate, vision health, asthma, and bone density. On both days, adult screenings will include blood pressure, cholesterol, glucose, HIV/AIDS, dental, and glaucoma.

The expo includes interactive pavilion demonstrations dedicated to beauty and wellness, nutrition and cooking, fitness and exercise, and holistic health.

Road to Health is presented by Kaiser Permanente and supported by national partnerships with the American Red Cross, Department of Minority Health, Baltimore City Health Fair, and AstraZeneca. Local partnerships include City of Oakland, Alameda County and Alameda County Public Health Department, the Ethnic Health Institute and the Bay Area Black United Fund. In each city, the “Eliminating Childhood Obesity” symposiums are sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

www.TavisTalks.com.