Scholars raise over $6,000 for American Heart Association
By Victoria Mejicanos
AFRO Intern
The McDonogh Upper School First Aid Club recently led a CPR training, teaching middle school students at McDonogh how to administer the life-saving measure as a part of the school’s “Academy” program, which allows teachers to step outside their standard curriculum during the final two-and-a-half weeks of the school year. A theme of this year’s Academy was heart health.
William Ashley III is a junior at McDonogh School, where he serves as the leader and founder of the Upper School First Aid Club. He helped lead the training alongside his father, Dr. William Ashley Jr., who is the current president of The American Heart Association Eastern States Regional Board of Directors.
William Ashley III shared that it was nice to give back to the middle school he attended and see the energy of students of all ages ranging from fifth to eighth grade.
“I think it was a great experience for us and also for the kids, and I hope we can keep doing this in the future,” said William Ashley III.
Teachers Carly Perry and James Margraff, both being affected personally by heart health, coordinated workshops on exercise, healthy food and CPR training and connected with a representative from the American Heart Association (AHA) Kate Pool. According to Perry, the school raised $6,912.38 in just two and a half weeks for the American Heart Association. The money raised will be used to help fund community initiatives, education, research and quality of care.
According to the AHA, heart disease is the leading cause of death in the United States, but Black people face an increased risk. William Ashley Jr. hopes to lessen these risks through community workshops like the one hosted with his son.
“What I want to do by talking to kids is to help to educate them so that they can be participants in their own healthcare, understand how the heart works, the brain works, and how their choices on a day-to-day basis can really make a big difference in their lives overall,” he said.
He called children the “future of health care” and said that the sooner children are shown how to be involved and nurture their talents, a healthier nation will emerge. He also said that oftentimes, children bring home what they learn and that can have a broader impact.
“All these kids are the connections to their families as a whole, so that the kids really are going to be ambassadors for this message, taking it home to their moms and grandmas, and taking it back to the church, taking it to their friends. And so, that way we really can do 10 times the work with a single throw.”
Dr. Aubrey Grant, the team cardiologist for sports teams like the Baltimore Ravens and the Baltimore Orioles as well as the director for sports cardiology at MedStar Health, called CPR a “life skill.”
Grant said that often minority communities are disproportionately affected due to their social determinants of health such as economic inequalities and lack of access to reliable healthcare, But, he added, although these are larger issues that may take longer to address, it’s important to work on things like CPR training.
“As we’re working on these sort of monumental things, I think a little thing, a smaller thing that one could do is to understand how to perform high quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation, because the data is clear that when used in the right situation, when deployed at the critical moment, it can truly save lives,” Grant said.
William Ashley Jr. expressed similar sentiments saying that his goal with his involvement in the AHA is to provide resources that the community wouldn’t otherwise have. The elder Ashley also expressed pride in his son.
“He really has done a phenomenal job. Him and the rest of the group that he’s built have made a real difference.”
