Dez Loreen
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Jan 25/06) - Going door-to-door spreading the word about healthy living and keeping people informed about heart disease is a lot easier when you have lots of people doing it.

Creating awareness of the Heart and Stroke foundation is something that Boris Atamanenko and his daughter Cassidy have done for the last four years. Every year they visit people door-to-door. This year, they're looking for additional assistance canvassing neighbourhoods. - Dez Loreen/NNSL photo

"It's not a hard thing to do," said Boris Atamanenko, who has been volunteering his time for the Canadian Heart and Stroke Foundation for the last four years.

"I was a little shy at first, but I got over it pretty quickly," he said.

Atamanenko's daughter Cassidy said "it's fun meeting new people. We just tell them about living healthy."

Boris became interested in the cause in 2001 and went door-to-door telling people about heart disease asking for donations to the foundation.

"The donations aren't necessary," said Boris. "But they do help a lot."

Cathy Comeau, who works for the foundation, said 122 volunteers are signed up to canvass Yellowknife, but another 95 are needed.

Boris said that canvassing door-to-door is something that you can do on a Saturday afternoon.

"It takes us no time at all," said Boris.

"Sometimes, I even get to see my friends," added Cassidy.

The Atamanenko family has their own reasons for staying involved.

"My grandfather died of a heart attack," said Cassidy. "Since then, I've always helped others learn more about this."

Besides the obvious exercise involved with walking door-to-door, Boris has other reasons as well for telling others about healthy living.

"Heart disease can affect any of us," said Boris. "It's important that we are all educated on the subject."

Boris said that almost 40 per cent of Canadians will develop some sort of cardiovascular disease in their lifetime.

"It's facts like that one that need to be heard," said Boris.

Comeau said that the annual dates for canvassing in the city are from Feb. 4-15.