Pictured left to right, State Senator Tom Killion, Lorina Marshall-Blake, President, Independence Blue Cross Foundation, Terri Edgar, Executive Director, West Chester Area YMCA, and Stephanie Austin, sudden cardiac arrest survivor.
In recognition and celebration of National CPR and AED Awareness Week, June 1-7, the Independence Blue Cross Foundation (Foundation) joined State Senator Tom Killion and representatives from the West Chester Area YMCA to celebrate the passage of Senate Bill 115 and talk about the importance of CPR and AEDs. The guests also participated in a demonstration of Hands-only CPR.
Lorina Marshall Blake, IBC Foundation president and State Senator Tom Killion practice Hands-only CPR.
The Foundation has awarded grants totaling $350,000 to raise awareness about heart heath and CPR training. Grant recipients include Simons Fund, an organization dedicated to raising awareness about the conditions that lead to sudden cardiac arrest and death in young athletes and children, and the Mobile CPR Project, which is overseen by Penn Medicine’s Center for Resuscitation Science. The Foundation also supports CPR Ready, an area coalition created in 2016 that aims to triple the bystander CPR rate in Philadelphia.
State Senator Tom Killion is passionate about the need for CPR awareness and training in our communities and schools. He sponsored the recently passed Senate Bill 115, legislation now on its way to Governor Tom Wolf, that calls on the Departments of Education and Health to identify or develop a model CPR curriculum for use in high schools that offer CPR instruction to students in grades 9 through 12.
Since 2010, the YMCA of Greater Brandywine requires all staff to be trained in CPR and trains and recertifies 2,000 to 3,000 people
Media Contact:
Ruth Stoolman
Independence Blue Cross
Ruth.stoolman@ibx.com
215-241-4807 (office)
215-667-9537 (cell)
