To top it off, she was a nurse and John, her son, was the picture of good health, and at 7 foot 4, 305 pounds, he was set to play college basketball at Kentucky . . . until he passed out and died of Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) 13 years ago. He was 18.

“Kids have been dying from this disease for years,” Stewart said. “I wish a parent would have taken up the issue a long time ago, then I wouldn’t be in the position I’m in. He would have had early detection.”

Stewart’s son was a victim of sudden cardiac arrest, the leading cause of death among young athletes. About 100 die per year from the condition and thousands more children die of heart conditions.

The issue will be at the forefront of the second annual Brandon Jennings boys basketball invitational, which is scheduled Saturday beginning at noon at Milwaukee Marquette.

Throughout the day, Stewart, the executive director of the John H. Stewart Foundation, as well as representatives from the Close the Gap Foundation, an educational initiative aimed at reducing disparities in cardiovascular care for women and minorities and raising awareness of sudden cardiac arrest, will be on hand spreading the word about heart health issues. Free blood pressure screenings will be available.

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Darren and Phyllis Sudman were thrilled when their baby, Simon, was born on Oct. 21, 2004. The child seemed healthy, but 96 days later, he died of an undetected heart arrhythmia passed down by his mother.

“I put him down for a nap, and he simply didn’t wake up,” said Phyllis Sudman, 39, of Plymouth Meeting. “If I had been screened as a child and knew I had it, his death certainly could have been prevented.”

Vowing to spare other families the same heartache, the two started Simon’s Fund in 2005. On Sunday, from noon to 3:30 p.m., the nonprofit will hold “Simon’s Day,” a comedy show for children, at the Ambler Theater.

The goal is to raise $100,000 for cardiac screenings of area schoolchildren. Since its inception, the nonprofit has raised $750,000 and held heart screenings for 2,100 youngsters in five suburban school districts, plus two private schools.

The event comes amid a recent spike in reports of teenage athletes who have died while playing sports due to undetected heart problems. On March 4, a Michigan student, Wes Leonard, 16, collapsed on the court after scoring his team’s winning basket; he died of cardiac arrest in a Fennville, Mich., hospital two hours later.

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“I have a very different perspective on life now, and I truly hope that no family has to go through what we continue to go through,” Sudman said. “No one can replace Simon, but our mission is to save the life of one child…and then another, by raising awareness about heart conditions that lead to SCA and death.”
Today, Simon’s Fund has expanded to a year-round operation with 12 board members.
They offer free heart screenings to children at schools throughout the Greater Philadelphia region. A simple EKG screening can help detect a hidden structural heart defect like cardiomyopathy, a condition where the heart is abnormally large, or Long QT Syndrome, an irregularity in the heart’s rhythm. Both conditions, if identified, can be treated with medication or corrective surgery.
To date, Simon’s Fund has checked nearly 2,000 hearts, and has changed 16 local lives for the better.
Simon’s Fund holds one major family fundraising event each year to promote research and raise awareness about the warning signs of SCA.

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The Colonial Middle School Student Council is a student government and leadership program that allows students to plan sales of items at lunches and to organize events such as dances and other student- and family-oriented gatherings.

Student council is composed of a sales committee that sells candy and tickets to events at lunch; a special events committee that sells food and prizes at events; an advertising committee that makes posters and endorses the sales and events; and a service committee that helps council give back to the community.

There is also a select executive committee consisting of four officers: Miranda Katz, treasurer; Julia Schumacher, secretary; Michael Krone, vice president; and Brett Paul, president. Our advisor is the enthusiastic and tireless Mrs. Annette Swartz.

December was a busy month for student council, with all sorts of events and sales. First of all, the second week held a sale of delicious chocolate-covered pretzels and was topped off with a sale of Dunkin’ Donuts. All students definitely had full stomachs that weekend.

Before that, volunteers from the service committee donated time to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the hungry. During the following week was the holiday party, where teams (designated by a color) made banners, dressed a mascot, wrote a song and competed at the end. The Yellow Team (Go Bananas!) won the showdown.

In addition, there was a sale of the ever-popular Bon Bons, which sold out very quickly.

An event open to all of CMS was bingo night on Friday, Jan. 22. There were many great prizes such as iPods, cameras, and radios.

Members of the executive board will enjoy a reward for their hard work to ensure a fun middle school experience. A Dave and Buster’s night will be held at the Plymouth Meeting Mall on Jan. 27, and all executive board members are invited to attend.

For all members of student council, whether a student is a homeroom representative, officer, or committee member, a personalized CMS Student Council T-shirt will be for sale. The shirts will have the student council logo on the front along with the person’s name on the back. Shirts cost $12 and will be available until Jan. 29.

Furthermore, an all-school Valentine’s Day dance will be held on Feb.12. Tickets cost $8, and that includes refreshments. While students are in the spirit, they can buy candy and cards at lunches to make this Valentine’s Day a special one!

The biggest charity event for student council would have to be the annual Penny Wars. Despite the name, students are welcome to donate more than pennies to the wonderful charities that will be receiving the money.

One charity is the Make a Wish Foundation, which grants wishes to terminally ill children. There is also the Ronald McDonald House, which provides housing to families of patients in local hospitals who are there for an extended period, and Simon’s Fund, which was started by a family in the Colonial School District whose child died of a heart disease and provides EKGs for students. One of these tests revealed the disease in a CMS seventh-grader, who got treated.

We will also be donating to the Kyle Kerpan Fund. Kyle Kerpan would be a member of the graduating class of 2014, one of our current eighth-graders. Unfortunately, Kyle died of a brain tumor in 2007.

And a portion of the money will go to the William Clinton Foundation to aid relief efforts in Haiti. All homerooms will donate, and the class with the biggest total and homerooms that collect more than $250 will be awarded a pizza party.

December and January kept us at student council buzzing around and making our events the best possible — and the future will be no different. Sales of Bon Bons and other food items are always popular among students, and the events make them keep coming back. All members work hard to make sure kids have a great experience at CMS.