Our High School’s FUTP 60 Council hosted an event to support the American Heart Association’s National “Red Out” Campaign. This campaign is a massive national public awareness day the first Friday each February, encouraging people from all walks of life, businesses, towns, schools, the media, buildings and landmarks to “go red” to bring attention to a leading killer – heart disease and stroke.
Heart disease claims more lives than the next four causes of death combined, including cancer. On average, an American dies of heart disease every 35 seconds. Though we always want to do our best to prevent a heart attack, not all of us are that fortunate. Sometimes people do suffer a heart attack and you may be the first on the scene to help. We decided to show others the importance of a life saving technique called “hands only” CPR.
My friend Derrick and I started the event by talking about heart healthy eating and exercise during the halftime of the Kewaskum High School basketball team game. We made sure all knew to call 911 immediately if they ever saw someone down. We gathered 40 students, staff, and parents to do hands only CPR in the middle of the basketball court. We did that with Little Annie dolls to the song “Staying Alive” because the beat perfectly matches how often one should do a compression.
All of the approximately 250 spectators in the stands watched. We also gave out free apples – we all know an apple a day keeps the doctor away! We had health care professionals take blood pressures. We said a special thank you to healthcare professionals, first responders, fire department volunteers, and police officers. Anyone who purchased a red American Heart Association t-shirt got into the game free. The t shirts were $10 and all proceeds went to the American Heart Association for heart disease research and study.
We ended up raising $1,300 overall which is an incredible outcome! People also walked away being reminded to take care of their heart through exercise and good nutrition!
Andrew
Summit Ambassador
Wisconsin
9th Grade
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