Stroke Awareness Oregon’s November BEFAST Campaign Reaches Communities Across Oregon

Bend-based nonprofit Stroke Awareness Oregon (SAO) held its
annual BEFAST Awareness Campaign from November 11-18 of this year; BEFAST, an
acronym of stroke warning signs, breaks down into Balance loss, Eyesight changes, Face
drooping, Arm weakness, Speech difficulty and Time to call 911.
SAO exists to mitigate death and disability caused by stroke and to support stroke families in
living their best possible lives.

The purpose of this campaign is to raise awareness for the
warning signs of stroke, and the mission of SAO. The BEFAST Campaign exists to help make
sure that community members who do have a stroke are surrounded by people who know how
to identify it, and what to do in that situation. This helps reduce response times, and decrease
the detrimental effects that can linger after a stroke.

SAO invites individuals, families, and organizations to get involved by participating as
distribution volunteers or offering their businesses, churches, and schools as locations to share
BEFAST information and help spread the word. In total, forty volunteers and SAO team
members distributed over 10,000 informational BEFAST cards, as well as 1,000 of the Spanish
version, RAPIDO cards.

The BEFAST Campaign covered cities in Oregon including Bend, Redmond, Sisters, Prineville,
Madras, La Pine, Portland, Corvallis, and Florence, as well as Vancouver, Washington. In Bend
and Redmond, BEFAST cards were distributed at Veteran’s Day parades to share information
within the community of veterans, a group that has a higher than average risk of stroke.

First Interstate Bank and WaFd participated in the campaign by handing out BEFAST cards at
each of their locations. In addition, SAO PSAs were broadcast on all Central Oregon Daily
stations.
“It’s critical that someone experiencing a stroke get medical intervention as soon as possible to
decrease the potential for death and disability,” said SAO Executive Director Carol Stiles. “That’s
why SAO is dedicated to getting out the message about BEFAST. And we know it’s working
because we are hearing stories of people’s lives saved because someone knew about
BEFAST.”

This story is based on submitted information and has not been verified by our news team.

This article appears in The Source Weekly December 5, 2024.