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The Prime Time Sister Circle celebrates 15 years in Tampa

 
Dr. Gayle Porter (left) and Dr. Marilyn Gaston (right) created Prime Time Sister Circles in 2003 to help African American women ages 40 to 75 improve their physical and emotional health.  The two doctors will commemorate 15 years at each of its six circles located in different cities including a celebration in Tampa starting at 10:30 Saturday (Dec 1) at Sheraton Tampa /Brandon Hotel at 10221 Princess Palm Ave.  Special to the Times | Dr. Porter and Dr. Gaston
Dr. Gayle Porter (left) and Dr. Marilyn Gaston (right) created Prime Time Sister Circles in 2003 to help African American women ages 40 to 75 improve their physical and emotional health. The two doctors will commemorate 15 years at each of its six circles located in different cities including a celebration in Tampa starting at 10:30 Saturday (Dec 1) at Sheraton Tampa /Brandon Hotel at 10221 Princess Palm Ave. Special to the Times | Dr. Porter and Dr. Gaston
Published Nov. 20, 2018

In 2003, when longtime friends Dr. Gayle Porter and Dr. Marilyn Gaston started the Prime Time Sister Circle (PTSC) in Washington D.C., they set out to help African-American women particularly ages 40 to 75 live a healthy life by offering free, 13-week classes that educated on highly prevalent issues such as diabetes or high blood pressure.

The idea developed when Gaston, a physician and former assistant surgeon general of the United States, Department of Health and Humans Services, and Porter, a clinical psychologist formerly on the faculty of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine and senior mental health advisor at the American Institutes for Research, both realized there was a shortage of health information for African American women at midlife.

They began by first publishing a book in 2001 entitled Prime Time: The African American Woman's Complete Guide to Midlife Health and Wellness offering health advice for midlife African American women, and their nonprofit organization, The Gaston & Porter Health Improvement Center, Inc. facilitates the circles spreading recommendations from the doctors' book.

PTSC specifically targets three risk factors which are major contributors to morbidity and mortality from chronic diseases: unmanaged stress, physical inactivity, and poor nutrition. For seven of the weeks they have experts in stress management, hypertension, fitness and nutrition come in and help women form their own individual program.

They did not foresee the nonprofit enjoying noteworthy success, growing to include with six "circles" in various cities including Baltimore, Chicago, Philadelphia, Prince George and Montgomery Counties in Maryland, Washington D.C and Tampa.

"To be able to keep a small nonprofit going for so many years and keeping it free for women is amazing and we're truly grateful," Gaston said.

"We've had a major impact on their health and we've been blessed to be apart of this. The reason we chose this age group is because there's such a major ripple effect with these women. They're the matriarchs, role models. They're the backbone of our community and if they makes a change, they're going to change their families, their children, their church- everything."

Prime Time Sister Circle will celebrate its 15 years of success beginning at 10:30 a.m. Saturday (Dec 1) at the Sheraton Tampa /Brandon Hotel at 10221 Princess Palm Ave., featuring a formal presentation with an update on the national and Tampa/Orlando regional data collected, a revised copy of the doctors' book, testimonials from some women, and they will collect clinical data and survey data to check in with the women and discover areas where they might have slacked.

"It's a celebration as well as a conference." Porter said. "Some of them kept in contact and it's a joy to connect with sisters we haven't seen in a few years."

Contact Monique Welch at mwelch@tampabay.com or Follow Mo_UNIQUE_.