Classic movie . . . Kevin Costner plays Elliot Ness . . . wait, that’s The Untouchables. The intangibles are the things that happen but are hard to sense and even harder to quantify. “Raising Awareness” is one of the big intangibles in our organization. We want parents, school personnel, coaches, pediatricians and students to learn about the warning signs of sudden cardiac arrest. We want them to know that there is a threat out there. So, we talk about it and write about and hope that it sinks in . . . somewhere.
Last week, I received validation that it did. A neighborhood friend stopped me in the street to thank me for Simon’s Fund. She told me that her daughter was just diagnosed with a heart condition. She was having some symptoms – shortness of breath and rapid heart rate. When she complained about it to her mother, her mother immediately sought the necessary medical attention. She knew to do this because of the information she’s received from Simon’s Fund.
Hearing something like this gives me the opportunity to think what every father wants to think – “that’s my boy.” It is good to know that she is OK and that Simon continues to make a difference in this world.
