The American Heart Association hosted the 2026 Long Island Go Red for Women Celebration on Thursday, Feb. 26, at Crest Hollow Country Club in Woodbury to spotlight new findings on rising heart disease risk for women. Approximately 350 people attended the event.
The event raised awareness of a new American Heart Association scientific statement warning that heart disease and stroke risk is rising sharply among women and girls. Projections show nearly 60% of women in the U.S. could have high blood pressure by 2050, and nearly one-third of women ages 22–44 are expected to have some form of cardiovascular disease.
Survivor and association chair Hana Boruchov led the event, bringing together survivors, medical experts, and community leaders to address these trends and highlight prevention, early detection, and self-advocacy.
“It was phenomenal to see the community come together in a beautiful location for this important cause,” Boruchov said.
Boruchov described two harrowing health scares she survived which have, in turn, inspired her advocacy.
The first emergency came when she contracted preeclampsia, a severe pregnancy complication causing life-threateningly high blood pressure. After giving birth, Boruchov couldn’t provide immediate care for daughter, as she was kept in the hospital for two weeks to monitor her condition, and went back the following eight weeks for treatments.
The second emergency involved Boruchov’s 22-month-old daughter, Adela, who experienced a severe fever and seizure caused by the respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), an infection affecting the lungs and respiratory tract.
In the moment of desperation, Boruchov saved her daughter’s life by performing CPR on her while on speaker phone with 911.
“If I hadn’t learned CPR years before, there could have been a different outcome,” Boruchov said, encouraging others to seek CPR-certification through the American Heart Association as she had done.
In addition to a 45-minute discussion emcee’d by Emmy Award-winning journalist and television personality Elisa DiStefano, the event featured short “Doc Chats” with four health experts fielding questions during a Pop-Up Lounge Experience.
“Looking out at a room filled with red during the 2026 Long Island Go Red for Women Celebration and knowing that everyone there shared the same commitment to women’s heart health was not only inspiring, it was a powerful reminder of what we can do together,” said Kathleen Stanley, chair of the American Heart Association’s Long Island Board of Directors and a heart survivor. “Heart disease remains an urgent and very real threat to women, but moments like this show that as a community, we can raise awareness, take action and help change the future of women’s heart health across Long Island.”
