Walk a few miles, and hang out with Thomas Jefferson.
 History meets Father’s Day at this 3.35-mile walk. It begins at the National Constitution Center where attendees will be able to meet Thomas Jefferson and take a photo with him. People of all fitness levels are welcome to walk or jog over the Ben Franklin Bridge and back and get a lovely panoramic view of the city. Proceeds go to the Friends of Independence. Learn more and register here.
$15 for adults, $10 for first child registered, $5 for every child after, children 5 and under are free. Sunday, June 17, 8 a.m., National Constitution Center front lawn, 6th and Arch streets.
>> Have a health or fitness event you’d like to share with Be Well Philly readers? Email eleaman@phillymag.com with details.
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Ivonne Mosquera-Schmidt didn't let her disabillity stop her from being active.
 Ivonne with her husband, John, at last year's Broad Street Run. Ivonne Mosquera-Schmidt has won gold and silver medals in triathlon world championships. She has run a handful of marathons and races at competitive speeds. She even climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2001.
Ivonne has been blind since age 2.
A project manager for Dow Chemical Company in Philadelphia, Ivonne was diagnosed with retinal cancer as a child and had to get both of her eyes removed to keep the cancer from spreading to her brain. Although she lost her vision, she didn’t let it keep her from being active. She got involved in ballet, tap and jazz dancing and while she was completing her undergraduate degree at Stanford University in California, she took up hiking.
When Ivonne returned to her hometown of New York City after college, she wanted to find a way to get outdoors again. In 2001 she called a local running group, the New York Road Runners, and asked if they had worked with blind runners before. They said they had and welcomed her to the group. The first time she ran with them she ran two miles and took a long nap when she got home. “After that I got hooked,” she says.
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In honor of National Salad Month (yup, that's a thing), we made a list of the best salads in town.
 Besides flowers and warmer weather, do you know what’s awesome about May? It’s National Salad Month! And while you should totally celebrate with a big ol’ bowl of your favorite mixed greens (check out our great recommendations below), let’s go over a few salad guidelines first. See, while most people think of salads as healthy options, they can actually be sneaky calorie bombs when you add things like mayo-based dressings and bacon bits. So here are a few expert tips.
Michelle Conlon, a registered dietitian at Temple University Hospital, says that when ordering or making salads, you should avoid fried toppings, such as fried chicken. After all, fried chicken, no matter what it sits on top of, is still fried chicken and loaded with fat and cholesterol. She also advises avoiding creamy dressings, such as ranch, bleu cheese and Caesar, as well as high-fat cheeses and crunchy toppings like tortilla chips. And although croutons are a salad staple, they’re usually loaded with butter and can add some serious calories to your salad, says Kevin O’Melia, nutritionist at Philadelphia Nutrition Center.
So how do you choose or make a healthy salad?
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On Cinco de Mayo, no less!
 Philly Dance Fitness is celebrating its two-year anniversary in style: with a free Zumba Dance Party in Rittenhouse Square. On May 5th, the studio’s regularly scheduled Zumba class in South Philly will move to Rittenhouse, where anyone can drop in for free. In addition to Zumba, instructors will lead a handful of the studio’s most popular routines. And don’t forget—May 5th is Cinco de Mayo (duh), so don’t be surprised if you hear a techno version of the Mexican Hat Dance in the mix. (In fact, you should probably plan on it.) Whether you’re a dance-fitness vet or a newbie, this event welcomes everyone! Learn more here.
FREE, Saturday, May 5, 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Rittenhouse Square Park, 18th and Walnut streets
>> Have a health or fitness event you’d like to share with Be Well Philly readers? Email eleaman@phillymag.com with details.
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Make a donation and enjoy a yoga class.
 What’s better than a yoga class? A yoga class that raises funds for breast cancer, that’s what. On Saturday May 5th, Bikram Yoga of Philadelphia will host an open class where you can make a donation and all proceeds go to Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Breathe deep, center, and support a great cause. Register and learn more here.
Donations suggested. Saturday, May 5, 1 p.m., Bikram Yoga of Philadelphia, 1520 Sansom Street, third floor.
>> Have a health or fitness event you’d like to share with Be Well Philly readers? Email eleaman@phillymag.com with details.
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Take part in Home Runs for Heart to raise funds for the American Heart Association
 So this is pretty sweet: Step up to the plate at Citizens Bank Park for a classic, two-day, home-run derby contest called Home Runs for Heart. Participants take turns fielding while they aren’t batting, and points are awarded based on distance. The male and female participants with the most points will be awarded prizes. This event raises funds for the American Heart Association and is held in honor of Richie Ashburn, former Hall of Fame Phillies player and broadcaster who died of a heart attack. Register and learn more here.
$400 per person, $1,500 per team of four; Tuesday, May 1 and Wednesday, May 2, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., Citizens Bank Park
>> Have a health or fitness event you’d like to share with Be Well Philly readers? Email eleaman@phillymag.com with details.
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Philadelphia scored low marks in the American Lung Association's State of the Air report. Anyone surprised?
Leave it to the American Lung Association to tell us how crappy our air is. Its 2012 State of the Air report, released today, puts the Philly metro area in the top 10 worst regions for air pollution. (To be fair, we’re tied for the honor with St. Louis in the year-round particle pollution category, but still. We rank 16th overall for high ozone days.)
The report looks at ozone pollution (i.e. smog) as well as particle pollution—a fancy term for microscopic bits of solids and aerosols floating around in the air, like the fumes you see coming out of a car’s exhaust—and assigns “grades” to determine the most and least polluted cities in America. For the purposes of the report, our metro area was generously defined to include counties in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware and Maryland.
Taken as a group, we failed miserably in terms of ozone and particle pollution. Here in Philadelphia County, the Air Quality Index, a color-coded scale that the EPA helped develop to show days when pollution is higher, shows that we have an average of 34 “orange” high-ozone days a year—meaning Philadelphians endure over a month’s worth of days during which the air is decidedly unhealthy to breathe. Even scarier, we average one “red” ozone day a year, when ozone levels are considered unhealthy for the entire population (!!).
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Do down dogs to benefit an AIDS foundation
 Head to Hotbox Yoga on Sunday for a 90-minute yoga session for a cause: One-hundred percent of the proceeds will go to the San Francisco AIDS Foundation via AIDS Lifecycle, an annual 545-mile bike ride from San Francisco to Los Angeles. Kari Samuels, a Philly lawyer and participant in the bike ride for the past seven years, will be at the yoga session. Register and learn more here.
Suggested donation of $20, Sunday April 29, noon to 1:30 p.m., Hotbox Yoga, 4163 Main Street, Manayunk
>> Have a health or fitness event you’d like to share with Be Well Philly readers? Email eleaman@phillymag.com with details.
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Learn how one base broth can add a ton of new recipes to your repertoire.
 Love miso soup? The base for it, as well as many other Japanese soups, is a cooking stock called dash, and it’s a central part of Japanese cooking. Learn how to make dashi at this cooking demo at the Callowhill Whole Foods then learn how you can add veggies and different proteins to make some pretty impressive and authentic eats. Register by sending an email to callowhill.events@wholefoods.com or sign up at the customer service desk in the store. Learn more here.
FREE, Wednesday, April 25th, 6 to 7 p.m., Whole Foods Callowhill, 2001 Pennsylvania Ave.
>> Have a health or fitness event you’d like to share with Be Well Philly readers? Email eleaman@phillymag.com with details.
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The seven-year-old nonprofit raises money from the community—and keeps it here, too.
 Mary Lou Leuters hatched the idea for a local breast cancer walk over a kitchen table in Port Richmond. A two-time survivor of the disease herself, Leuters felt the need to give back to the people who are currently affected by the illness. Thus began the Ladies of Port Richmond, a nonprofit group aimed at raising awareness and funding breast cancer research.
Unlike Susan G. Komen and other breast-cancer nonprofits that have a national scope, the Ladies keep their funds local, raising $250,000 over the last seven years for the Kimmel Cancer Center and donating funds to the Fox Chase Cancer Center and Northeastern Hospital, among other local facilities. This year, the funds they raise will go to Thomas Jefferson Hospital, Holy Redeemer and Nazareth Hospital.
“It’s really a great organization we have, and it’s very community-oriented,” says Louise Holmes, recording secretary of the group. And it’s true: When Leuters founded the Ladies of Port Richmond in 2005, she reached out to friends and neighbors in the community to help. Today, nine women volunteer their time and efforts to raise funds with the group. Every year, through a community breakfast, flea markets, bus trips, comedy nights and their main event, the Port Richmond Breast Cancer Walk, these women raise about $50,000 for breast cancer.
“The money that we get, we want it to go to education and awareness, and hopefully we’ll see a cure in our lifetime,” Holmes says. “When you give those funds over to those hospitals, you know someone is going to directly benefit from it.” READ MORE
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