Members of the Syracuse community came together to participate in the 13th annual Winston Gaskin walk for health and wellness.

The event took place at Kirk Park in Syracuse around parts of the Onondaga Creed walk.

The event was sponsored by the organization 100 Black Men of Syracuse and honored Winston Gaskin, an African-American Syracuse native who passed away in 2009. Gaskin was a pharmacist and army veteran.

The walk dedicated to Gaskin has set its mission to raise awareness on a variety of health issues and promote healthy lifestyles.

Charles Anderson, Chair of the 100 Black Men said, " "This place has been here forever, and we've never used it for the walk, so we thought it was necessary to be in the community and see if we could draw more people to think about health and wellness and walking is one way to do that."

He added that exercising is only one way to stay healthy. Nutrition is another way to stay healthy, and bringing in organizations that deal with that would help them become more responsive.

Anderson said, "I'm always interested in health and wellness because in the black community we have a lot of problems with a lot of different diseases, and we're just trying to get the message out to people who want to stay healthy."

All the proceeds from the event will benefit 100 Black Men of Syracuse's health and wellness initiatives.