Increasing Access to Saving Lives!

Racing Hearts empowers access to saving lives for underserved athletes!

San Jose, California----In partnership with the City of San Jose, Parks Recreation and Neighborhood Services Department, Racing Hearts, a nonprofit based in Palo Alto, is funding a life saving heart defibrillator (AED) at Watson Park’s Sports Fields. 

An Automated External Defibrillator (AED) is a lightweight, portable device that determines whether to deliver an electric shock through the chest to the heart. The shock can stop an irregular rhythm and allow the normal rhythm to resume. Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is the abrupt loss of heart function. If not treated within minutes, it quickly leads to death. Every minute of delay decreases the person's chances of survival by 7% to 10%.

The use of an AED is critical in the chain of survival during a sudden cardiac arrest.  SCA can strike anyone, at anytime.  Every year, nearly 300,000 Americans die of SCA—and up to 15,000 are children. That's almost 800 American's per day - one death nearly every two minutes.  More deaths are caused by sudden cardiac arrest than by breast cancer, lung and colon cancer, and HIV combined. 

With collaboration from Sports Basement, who provided the staff with free CPR/AED training and with funding from Racing Hearts, the Sports Facility Reservation Staff from Parks, Recreation & Neighborhood Services (PRNS) has purchased a life saving AED to raise the standard of care for the over 2,000 athletes within the Watson Park community.  Funds for these devices are coming from Racing Hearts donations obtained from their AED lending program.  Monthly maintenance will be provided by the PRNS Department.   This program is being 100% funded for the first 5 years by Racing Hearts. 

Racing Hearts is a 100% volunteer run 501c3 nonprofit based in Palo Alto, California that advocates and empowers access to saving lives.  Racing Hearts is a proactive health and safety nonprofit which partners with athletic and health organizations and funds full ‘turn key’ 5 year life saving heart defibrillator (AED) programs at high risk community locations. They target their funding to underserved populations as studies have shown a correlation between the underserved and less access to healthcare.   Since starting Racing Hearts in 2012, they have increased the safety of over 123,750 people by working to place 85 life saving heart devices in the Bay Area.  

Racing Hearts has been donating AEDs to athletic events in the Bay Area to raise awareness about AEDs and Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA).  Local athletes may have seen Racing Hearts at events such as the Lucile Packard Scamper, the San Jose Race to the Row, or the San Jose Applied Materials Silicon Valley Turkey Trot.  And, Racing Hearts will be seen at upcoming events such as the Miles for Migraine San Francisco Run, the Tri & Du Mermaid Series in Capitola, and the Let’s Go 510 East Bay 10K Run.  

“Automated external defibrillators (AEDs) is not only the right thing to do for everyone, it’s a simple solution to a huge problem. By the use of nearby defibrillators in a timely manner, we can improve the current success rate of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) which has been unchanged since the 1960s from 5% to up to 80%.”  said Racing Hearts founder, Stephanie Martinson.  “We simply believe in the standard of care for all people.”   

“Over the last five years we have certified over 30 SB staffers as instructors, and have certified approximately 7,500 people with our free CPR classes and this has saved lives!” said Mike Gibson, Marketing team member of Sports Basement Sunnyvale. 

Gina Aning, Recreation Superintendent for Sports Facility Reservations, is “extremely pleased that PRNS’ activities at the sports fields at Watson Park has been chosen for this gift of an AED.  We have trained staff on the use of the device and will have it available for the scheduled sports users at Watson Park.  Of course, we never hope to use it, but it is now a tool available in the event of an emergency that we haven’t had until now.  Thank you to Racing Hearts for your generous donation!”

Other notable supporters of Racing Hearts include: Joe Simitian, former California State Senator and current Santa Clara Supervisor; Carl Guardino, Silicon Valley Leadership Group CEO; Dr. Cindy J. Chang, Chief Medical Officer, US Olympic Team 2012; Helen Carroll, Former NCAA Women's Basketball Athletic Director and former Olympic Swimmers Lisa Gani, Marbeth Dorst, and Chris Dorst.

If you’d like more information about this topic, please call at 650-308-4183 or email at info@racinghearts.net.