September 27, 2025 • 29 mins
Cardiac incidents occur without much warning, if any, and time is of the essence to save a life. CPR is important, but a device called an AED - automated external defibrillator - can restart someone's heart quickly, before serious brain damage can set in. While many offices, retail outlets and apartment buildings have these devices, it's not always clear where they are, and that's where Cardiac Crusade comes in. They're rallying volunteers around the country, including here in Massachusetts, to help them map these devices, with hopes of eventually working with tech companies to make it easy for you to find them in times of need. Founder Greg Coon and Massachusetts Executive Director Tyler Mola join Nichole this week to tell their story and share details about their upcoming event in Southie.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:07):
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
Each and every week right here, we come together, we
talk about all the topics important to you and the
place where you live. It's great to have you back
with us this week. I'm Nicole Davis. This time around,
we're highlighting the work of a nonprofit that is dedicated
to helping people find a life saving device. If you
(00:28):
think about it, cardiac incidents like heart attacks, well they
really don't have much warning, if any. You might suddenly
find yourself out and about and in a situation where
somebody is on the ground right in front of you
fighting for their life. Now we know in that moment,
it's all about buying yourself more time. CPR is important,
but a device called an AED, an automated external defibrillator,
(00:51):
can do the best job at restarting that person's heart
before serious brain damage sets in or even death. Think
about it, though, do you know where the AED is
in your office or your apartment building? How about when
you're out in the subway, or maybe you're just at
your favorite store. I can't say I do all the time,
and it might seem like an afterthought to you as well.
But there's a nonprofit out there called Cardiac Crusade that
(01:14):
wants to change that and make it easy for you
to know. Their mission is simple, help nine to one
one dispatchers and everyday folks like you and I know
exactly where the AEDs are in as many places as possible.
So to do this, they've launched a brand new mapping
campaign where around the country volunteers are spreading out to
find them one by one. So that campaign is coming
(01:36):
here to Massachusetts and we can talk about it now.
Greg Kuhn is the founder of Cardiac Crusade. They are
based in Texas, now here in Massachusetts. Tyler Mola is
Cardiac Crusade's head of operations as they get things started here, gentlemen,
thank you both for your time. Greg. This is certainly
a very ambitious idea. Before we kind of get into
(01:56):
the nitty gritty of all this, i'd love to know
a bit of back round about Cardiac Crusade, where you
came up with this idea and how it's all kind
of come together up until now.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
So, my wife Julie had a sudden cardiac arrests in
twenty eighteen. She's part of the ten percent Survival Club,
and the big aha moment was I didn't know the
difference between a cardiac arrest and a heart attack, and
those are very very different. A heart attack is plumbing,
and so you have an artery it gets you know,
(02:28):
more and more clogged the as your heart tries to
push blood through your body. And it's more clogged, your
heart is working harder and harder, so you have the
traditional signs of shortness of breath, you know, no energy, numbness,
tingly on the left side usually, you know, chest pain,
you know, all those signs that we've that we hear
(02:50):
that's the heart. That's the heart attack happening. So you
can have signs for you know, minutes, hours, days, weeks longer.
If you go to the hospital, you can serve you know,
it's quite survivable, but it's one Typically guys are like,
I'll be fine. No, then it gets to a point
where it's too late. So as long as you pay
attention to the signs, you know, a heart attack is
(03:13):
quite survivable as long as you do those things. A
cardiac rest is electrical. It's like throwing water on a battery.
So Julie, my wife, had the cardiac arrest she had
zero blockage, healthy, she had no problems, and so but
what she did have at the at what they think
caused it. And if you've got a hundred cardiac arrest patients,
(03:36):
you've got a hundred different reasons why that person went
into cardiac arrest. Her heart was a little in the arch,
she had a virus, and she also had no potassium
in her blood in her in her system. If she
would have which is electrolytes, so if she would have
eaten up banana that morning, maybe who knows, she may
not have a head of cardiac arrest. So so now
(03:59):
her her heart's trying to push blood through her now
a little bit in large heart, and it's and it's
trying to do it, but it doesn't know how to
because there's the electrical systems kind of messed up, and
her heart just went from bit bump bump, bump, bump
bump to it's in the feb is what it's called.
But basically it's kind of shaking with his audio.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
So the best I cand is, you know, if you're listening,
he's he's shaking his hands around a little bit, so
you get the idea.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah, but this you know, this this is not pumping
blood through the body. It just goes yeah, exactly, and
so you you literally from one second to the next,
she was at her local high school talking to a
friend of hers after doing a charity event at the
high school, and they're just chit chatting, and from one
(04:49):
second to the next, she collapses and she is not breathing,
her heart's not beating. You know you. So when someone
goes into cardiac arrest, you first called nine to one one,
number two you start CPR, and number three you get
the a D. Now, CPR is essential because what it
(05:10):
is doing is it's it's using your your the compressions
that you're doing on the chest to help buy minutes.
You're extending the time that blood is continuing to go
to go through the body. The a the shock from
an a D is the only thing that will restart
the heart. You have to have the shock in order
(05:34):
to restart the heart. So what happens is now you're
doing can only one has been called. You've got CPR going,
which is great. A big question is, okay, where's that
a ED? Now I understand that why you need to
know where the a ED is. So there's the chain
of Survival nine one one cpr A D. But there's
(05:56):
a huge gap in there. Julie just happened to to
have her cardiac arrest right in the perfect place, at
the right time, with the right people, the right equipment.
They knew that the AD was in the gym, you know,
fifty feet away. But what if you're in a place
that you don't know that there's an AED in that
gym fifty feet away, or countless stories of people that
(06:17):
die because they and there was an AD fifty feet
away that they didn't know about. So there is a
huge gap that we're trying to fill and that's the
purpose of what we're doing. So now I understand the
difference between a cardiac arrest and a heart attack, because
as cardiac arrest, your brain starts to die in three minutes.
Have to You've got you've got to take immediate action.
(06:39):
You've got to jump on it and bystanders. You know,
it takes an ambulance for eight twelve minutes whatever it
is sure to get there. They may be on another
call and the person doesn't make it. I mean, there's
just that's just that's not survivable. After you get past
ten minutes past, you know, past that. Now I understand
(07:00):
how this all works. I'm at my desk after she
is out of the hospital, and I look at my
phone and I'm thinking, why is it that I can say, Hey, Google,
Hey Siri, where's the closest Starbucks? But I can't do
that with an A D good question. That's the crazy,
little silly idea that I came up. And you know,
(07:20):
now we're here and to this point, so so and
so I created a change dot org page. I posted
on Facebook, TechEd people and and it had a It
just kind of had a life of its own where
people were like, sign you know, sign this. So of
course Google and Apple Maps should have ades natively on
(07:43):
their on their maps, and then some and then we
got some media coverage and it was just kind of
the snowball effect. Someone who knew someone who knew someone
at Google Maps said hey, let's talk. So we have
had conversations. I can't go into any more details because
of you know, but we have had conversations with both
(08:03):
Apple Maps, and I'm sorry Google Maps and Apple Maps
to see what we can do. But this is not
just hey, there's a wheelchair ramp at this restaurant. And
add it to their maps. This involves life and death,
so we've had it to jump through a lot of hoops.
We'll get there.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
You have this great idea, obviously, and you clearly are
getting support not just from the public but also from
these companies. So what can you do right now to
start the process.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
There is postpoint is IS is our database partner, and
they're they're really the only good authority in ad mapping,
mainly because you verify that they're there. There are a
lot of lists out there and websites that have a list,
but this is the one that actually has volunteers go
out and map them and also confirm that they're there.
(08:55):
This database is available to nine to one one systems
in cities, town, counties, villages, states have access to this database,
so their nine to one one operators can say, hey,
you're calling there's a SUNN cardiac arrest victim at this location.
You start CPR, tell someone else to go across the
(09:15):
street to the restaurant X and go get the ad
bring it back. And if that takes forty five seconds
and the ambulance takes seven minutes, that's someone is living
compared to high living. So that database is now available
to nine one one systems. So that all being said,
i can't do it all by myself. We've got to
(09:38):
have volunteers, and we have an army of volunteers. So
last year we had a campaign in Buffalo, New York,
and Western New York to register as many AEDs as
we can. We had a goal of one thousand eighties.
We ended up mapping over twelve hundred AEDs. Nice though
we are now in Boston and in Massachusetts, well I'm sorry,
(10:00):
in Massachusetts and with a goal of mapping over fifteen
hundred AEDs. So let me let me uh, let me
do a statistic for you in Massachusetts. So the national
survival the survival rate for certn cardiac arrest is ten percent.
Ninety percent of those that have a cardiac arrest die.
(10:21):
In San Diego, where two thy six hundred plus AEDs
are mapped, their survival rate is between fifty and seventy percent.
Depends on where you are in the city. Of course,
there's a lot of variables in there, but generally that's
and you compare that to the national survival rate of
ten percent, that's a huge, huge difference. There are a
couple cities in eastern Massachusetts that have a survival rate
(10:45):
of three percent.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Three which is thirty three three three percent, Yes, three percent.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
And this is Massachusetts, this is Boston Medical of the
not just everywhere everywhere the world. Yeah, which, and I
saw that that study that came out, and frankly, I
was like, that's crazy. And so we are. We are
on a mission to increase the survival rate of us
(11:16):
from some cardiac arrest in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
And that is where Tyler comes in. So Tyler, tell
me a little bit about why this matters to you
and why you wanted to get involved in this in
the first place.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
So I guess we'll flash back to August twenty twenty three.
My grandmother died of a suspected cardiac arrest, and so
obviously heartbreaking and devastating. And I'm going to fast forward
now to December twenty twenty four. My aunt has a
cardiac arrest but survives. Difference there ad was brought on scene,
(11:50):
I will say, my aunt, it was brought on scene
in the most timely manner, but it was there, and
she received shocks and now was alive because of them.
And so my cousin did who kind of started it.
Kind of I would say it wrote me in. Isn't
the right term, It sounds as a bad connotation, but
she was the one that brought me along and introduced
me to Greg back in late January early February.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
And so I joined Cardiaker.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
Saide as a result of those two events, mainly with
my aunts surviving and my cousin Andanielle introduced him to
the organization. But those two events were really what sparked
my interest in my dedication towards improving survival rich for
cardiac arrest.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
So how are you then working to get this done
in Massachusetts? I mean the statistic that Greg just came,
I'm still reeling over that. And like he was mentioning,
we have so many incredible medical facilities here in Massachusetts.
What's the plan here to get this done?
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Right?
Speaker 4 (12:39):
It is an egregiously low number, and I know standard
should be higher, especially here in Massachusetts. And I would say,
you know, where do I start with what we have
planned right now? We have had a lot of ongoing
conversations and we've done a lot in a short period
of time, which I think it just my optimism moving
forward and how fast already moving is just it's through
the moon, and so I'm really excited. But we have
planned so I guess I'll start from where I Really
(13:03):
we're building out our team, and I don't know if
Greg is mentioned already, but we're calling our team here
in the Boston Shock Squad, and I think it's a
great name and kind of encompasses our mission really, and
so I am connected. I work at the UMAs Tea
Medical schools is a research coordinator. I've done pre clinical
research for years and now I'm doing clinical and I
have friends that are med students here and actually old
(13:24):
college roommate of mine, So I approached him and I
was like, hey, like, are you interested in doing this
with us?
Speaker 3 (13:28):
And I wanted to bring him along on the team.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
He's a good friend of mine, dedicated kid, and he's
a med student, so his interests aligne and so they
actually started a cardiacer say club here at the medical school.
So we're a partnered organization with them, and so our
plan is to have med students get recruited to be
a part of this club and go out and map
here in Worcester in the central Massachusetts area, and then Actually, yesterday,
me and my friend Jack, the med student, we were
(13:50):
at Northeastern and we were in a nonprofit volunteer engagement
fair and I was telling them yesterday in our group chat.
I don't think there was one minute over the course
of that four hour event that we weren't talking engaging
with students. And so, you know, yeah, it's a wonderful
mission and it's really a no brainer. Greg and I
always say it all the time that it's a no
brainer to want to do this and get involved. And
we had a lot of pre med pre health students
(14:11):
that you know, understood our mission and understood the importance.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
And Greg, I didn't share this with you just yet.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
I wanted Jack to share with you. But I will
share with you today, Nicole, is that we had a
student come up. His father suffered cardec arrest and survived one.
And so we have that happen all the time when
we hear these stories, and it's like, that is the
point of our mission. We want to increase that likelihood
that someone else's dad has a tomorrow. And so we're
really just recruiting students and we have events coming up.
We've been working with the American Heart Association and they're
(14:37):
gonna They've been super supportive here in Massachusetts where we're
trying to find ways to collaborate, and they're including us
in events that really really help us with our awareness
and you know, increasing our I guess, the visibility of
what we're trying to do to the community and the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And so we have a lot of
things in you know, ongoing conversation, a lot of things planned,
and I think in the next couple of months you'll
(14:57):
really hear more about us and what we're trying to do,
especially with more volunteers being involved, and hopefully there's an
exponential increase in the amount of adds we map and
that are on post point.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
So is this only for med students or can anybody
help volunteer?
Speaker 4 (15:10):
No, No, this is a community This is a community mission,
and I think we've targeted students because there is a
I guess an incentive for them to join. You know,
there is selfish reasons, right, you know, they could add
this to their resume, but it also is it works
in Tantum. This is a great cause, of great mission
and it is truly going to save lives. But you know,
we have events. Like I said, we're going out in
the community. We want to recruit as many people as
possible that you know, one understand our mission, but two
(15:31):
may have been affected some way or another. So this
is not just for med students, just for students at all.
Like in general, it is for everyone to get involved.
We want as many people in the Commonwealth to be
involved as possible.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
So we'll talk about the events you have coming up
here in just a couple of minutes, Greg, though, I'd
love to know more about the training process. If somebody
wants to be a volunteer and wants to help map,
what do they have to do and how I'm assuming
they're not just barging into office buildings and saying, hey,
where's your aed I'm sure it's a little more complex
than that.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yes, there's a there's an online training. It takes twenty
minutes to go through. The training is free. We have
a website just for this, for the Massachusetts initiative. If
Cardiac Crusade dot org slash Boston, so go to the website.
You can find out you know about the upcoming event
(16:19):
that we've got that we'll talk about. But we also
have a link to the training and just click the link,
take go, do the training online for about twenty minutes,
send us the information that's requested at the end, and
you now have the ability to map and verify ADS,
which is which is amazing that once you verify an
AED and that it's there and you hit submit that
(16:40):
submit button is there's something so wonderful about hitting that
submit button because what you can do is, uh, as
soon as you hit submit, that AED is now available
to your local nine to one one system, that it
is there where it wasn't before. So the nine to
one to one operators as long as they're connected into
(17:01):
the Pulse Point database, and many are, many aren't, many
are thinking about it. Many it's like you know again,
like Tyler, it's a no brainer for these municipalities to
is free for them to connect it to it. And
so as soon as you hit submit, that nine to
(17:21):
one one operator will know that there's an AD at
that location and can direct people to go get that
AD in case of a sudden cardiac arrest.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
So timing wise, how long do you think it's going
to be or do you not know yet? It's okay
if you don't. When people are going to be able
to open up you know, Google or Apple or whatever
and be able to have this right in front of them,
or is that still a little further out at this point.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
You know, that's our dream. I keep whenever I describe
that we're going to do this, I always I use
the word soon, coming soon, because it's ambiguous. It's also
positive that you know that's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Soon, and so speak it into existence. They say, you
know what.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
If I keep saying soon, it's going to happen soon.
Right Our contact at at Google Maps said he we
were having a call, I know, a bit ago, and
he noticed a little frustration that it wasn't happening because
I want it to just push the button, click okay
or whatever exactly. And he said, Greg, I understand your
(18:26):
I feel I can feel you're a little frustrated, and
I'm like, you know, I'm at their whim. They can
just they can say, Greg, go away, we never want
to talk to you again. But they're not doing that.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
I'm the thorn in their side that keeps doing this
this thing. And he goes, it'll happen. It might take
a month, it might take a year, it might be
ten years. But it will happen where you can say hey, Google, Hey, Siri,
where's the closest AD and it pops up. And it
can't be for for public purposes for our mission. It
(18:58):
can't be on a website. It can't be a list somewhere.
Excuse me. It can't even be PulsePoint because pulse Point
you have to open the app. You have to do
you know, so you have to do things in the meantime.
You don't if someone has a cardiac arrest and is
laying their lifeless next to you, you need to be
doing cpright.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
You're not sitting there scrolling your phone like, oh hold on,
I thought I had the app in there somewhere.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
You know passwords, and you know that's why it has
to be native where you say hey Google, hey Siri
and it pops up.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Okay, but you know what I mean. The pulse Point
stuff that is helping first responders right away, and that
in itself is something to be celebrated and.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Clear the other part of what we're doing. So you know,
we're populating the map with AD locations so that nine
to one one operators can have it. Now, remember Postpoint
is our database partner. So they would API the database
to these nine to one one systems throughout the country.
Same thing with Google and Apple Maps. When we add
these ads, we're not them to Google and Apple Maps servers.
(20:02):
They are a p I ing the data from pulse Point.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
They're plugging in.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
So the source for all a D locations is pulse Point.
Whether it's a good goes to the nine to one
one systems or ultimately to your smartphones.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Right, anything that eventually could API into this. You are
doing the work by the community volunteer program getting out
there and making this database that will save lives. At
the end of the day. You're doing the grunt work now,
as they say, we're.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Doing a lot of the gruntwhere and it's amazing. So
after so we're in the Dallas area, after Julie had
her her cardiac arrest in our local town, we went
to coffee with the the medical director for our city
for planning and I asked them, because now we know
(20:53):
about PulsePoint, we know about a D. It's in the
importance of knowing where they are and they're signed up
for their nine one one systems to connect to that database.
And I said, how many of the ADS that are
out there. Does Postpoint have in their database in the
in our city and you don't know what you don't know?
And he guessed maybe ten percent. Oh, I'm like, so
(21:14):
ninety percent of the ads that are out there and
available you don't know where they are. They're not going
to help save anyone if you don't know where they are. No, No,
that's that. That was another big statistic. Okay, ready for
another big statistic.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Sure, lay it on me.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Bring it. The national survival rate, like I said, is
ten percent. Yes, do you want to take a guess
on how what? What the what is the survival rate
if you get a shock within two minutes?
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Probably seventy five?
Speaker 2 (21:46):
You're wow. Most people go like forty fifty percent, eighty percent.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I did take a Red Cross CPR class recently, so
that's what I'm kind of cheating, But yeah, no, I
know it is. It is incredibly beneficial. It is truly beneficial.
And those a eds they're not that big either. They've
been They've started to make them so small. I mean,
every business, if you ask me, you should have one
of these every classroom. I mean it's they're they're expensive, yes,
(22:15):
but they can do wonderful things. And they're pretty easy
to operate too, if I can learn how to do
it in a red Cross class. And I am not
a medically inclined person. I mean, there's no reason not
to have one right.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
And you can't. And part of it is that it
won't shock. It doesn't. It won't shock unless you're in
a shockabul rhythm, unless your heart's doing the waking. Yeah, yeah,
it's not gonna if your heart is going a bump,
a bump, it's normal beating normally. It's not going to
shock you. It will only do it when it can
bring somewhat into a shock from a uh that's in
(22:49):
a shockable rhythm into a normal heartbeat. So there are
some trainers I've seen they will put an a d
pad pads on them during training because they're like, I
don't want to do that, and they'll say shock, hit
the shock button and it won't shock them. So that
is proving that you know, it will only help. It
will only shock if they can help you cannot hurt someone.
(23:12):
I'm gonna do a little side story here. I actually
did CPR on a hockey player at a local rink
and he collapsed. He had a cardiac arrest. I started
doing CPR. And when I was doing CPR, and I
could feel and hear his ribs break, and people are afraid, Oh,
I don't want to break his ribs. It's like break away.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
You need to he's dead.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
You don't do it. So I knew I was doing
compressions the right way and deep enough, and he he lived.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
That's the most important thing, all right, So let's talk
about what's happening here in Massachusetts, Tyler. We've got the
army of volunteers that you're obviously working very hard to grow,
but you've also got this event coming up here on
October sixteenth. Tell me a little bit about the event.
It's all about how people can get involved soon and
so forth.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
Yeah, of course, So, like you said, October sixteenth, which
is actually a really special day. So it's National Restart
a Heart Day, and that's actually the official day that
we're kickstarting our campaign here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
That said, it doesn't mean you can't get.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Involved now and start mapping ads, but that's when our
official campaign is going to start on National Reason Start
a Heart Day on October sixteenth. And so this event,
really we're gonna have a fun time. It's going to
be at a restaurant called Local in South Boston. We
invite everyone to join if you go to our website,
as Greg kind of already mentioned, there's a link to register,
and it's all over social media. If you go on
the Cardiac Crusade m a Instagram and you can go
(24:35):
to my social as well, Tyler dot Mola Instagram and
links there as well. But yeah, this event really is
just to introduce Cardiac Crusade into the Massachusetts community. We
want to invite everyone that's prospective volunteers and anyone else
that just wants to learn more about what we're all about.
We're gonna have Greg's gonna come in for this. Like
you said, he's in the Dallas area. I'm local, so
it's a drive up for me. Yeah, we're gonna have
Julie's Wife's going to be there, another one of our
(24:57):
members of the Boston Shock Squad.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
She's a kardiak or resurvivor as well.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
So they're both going to speak about their stories and
why this is important to them and why this truly
matters and can actually save a lot of lives in
our community here in Massachusetts. But like I said, Yeah,
it's gonna be fun. We're gonna have a raffle for
people to kind of can win fun prizes we've had
And this is one thing too that I've been utterly
shocked about as a support that we receive from the
community local services. I mean, we probably have fifty plus
(25:22):
donations that we've received for this event. So we have
a mix of a raffle that we're going to do
for local services as well as an auction for maybe
more higher ticket items.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
We have a lot of sports memorabilia that have been.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Donated, so it'll be an event that again we just
want to welcome people to join us and learn more
about us, but also have a good time. It's going
to be like I said, at local it's a really
great atmosphere, make the theme more heartfelt. Pun is intended there.
So yeah, yeah, everyone. The website, like I said, has
a linked to register, so we invite everyone to join us.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
And this is the Boston Shock Squad. But again you're
based out in Central Mass and plenty of other people
are not that far of a drive from Boston, so
we're talking like New hamp Sure, Providence. They're all welcome too.
I'm assuming correct.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Oh, of course, yeah, we want this.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
This is a Massachusetts campaign, but the goal is to
expand from city to city, and I don't want to
you know, I'm not trying to speak for Greg here,
but yeah, we want to expand and be a national organization.
And then, like you said, he did a Buffalo campaign.
Now we're in Massachusetts and the goal is to keep
bouncing around.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Sure, I mean getting those AEDs on the South Shore,
maybe a Metro West or Cape ann whatever, as long
as they're around the greater Boston area or even in
central mass If you're in New Hampshire, you're listening. If
you're in Rhode Island, you're listening. October sixteenth, this is
going to be in South Boston over at Loco Loco,
over at Loco in South Boston. And again you are
(26:40):
collecting donations here. So what do you need when it
comes to donations. Do you want just the volunteers, do
you need the money? Do you need both? Tell me
a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yes, yes, and yes we need all We did all
of the above. So you know, donations are going to
help a lot things for our volunteers. One of the
things we learned Buffalo for example, is we had a
lot of volunteers. We had great success in Buffalo, but
people would just come in, We're in their street clothes
and knock on the door, Hey do you have an
A D. And they're like who are you? And yeah,
(27:12):
exactly what are you doing? And who what's your name?
And you know, So we want to get shirts for
all of our volunteers, let's say Crusade volunteer, So that
would be a huge help and also just funding what
we're doing, and we need to get social media out there.
We need you know, it would just get word out
is going to be the biggest thing that we can
(27:32):
do other than the other than the donations, having volunteers.
So you know, everything is pretty much listed on the
Cardiac Crusade dot org slash Boston fabulous uh site. It's
all there, including free tickets and free admission to the
to our event which gives you a look at see
what's for auction. You can uh you can uh bid
(27:55):
on the auction whether you're there in person or remotely.
You can be anywhere and on some of these auction
items and just kind of keeping keeping in touch with
what we're.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Doing right phenomenal.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Do you want to I want to reiterate and emphasize
like this is a volunteer driven initiative, and so the
biggest help that you can have for us is to
become a.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Volunteer in map ads.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
The donations are great, doming wrong, We're going to use
them wisely to support our volunteers. But this is volunteer driven,
and so if you want to support us in the
best way possible, become a volunteer and help us map
ads around Massachusetts.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Say, if there's somebody who works at a corporation that
might be local or a business that might want to
help you out, are you looking for connections in that
way too.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
I have a friend of mine his girlfriend. They do
a lot of this kind of work where the company
is interested in doing some sort of community engagement, volunteer
driven initiative, and so we're trying to at least I'm
trying to on my and organize stuff like that where
we can get companies and organizations involved to do maybe
a mapping day or we're still working on what type
of basis, but weekly, bi weekly, monthly, whatever that kind
(28:55):
of regular schedule is. But we want to have an
on a regular schedule so that they can cover you know,
if it's one neighborhood today and then the next time
it's another or certain radius or groups go out. You
know that we're still fine tuning all of that. But
that's kind of like like you said, like you alluded to,
that's kind of what we want to do is do
mapping gay so that we can cover area with large
amounts of people to make it most efficient.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Okay, Well, Cardiac Crusade dot org slash Boston. Got again,
Cardiac Crusade dot org slash Boston Tyler, Greg, what an
incredible initiative you've got going on here. Obviously it came
out of tragedy, but you're saving a lot of lives.
So thank you both for your time and your efforts
and your energy, and I wish you all the best
as you start rolling this out here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join me again
next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole
Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
From WBZ News Radio in Boston. This is New England Weekend.
Each and every week right here, we come together, we
talk about all the topics important to you and the
place where you live. It's great to have you back
with us this week. I'm Nicole Davis. This time around,
we're highlighting the work of a nonprofit that is dedicated
to helping people find a life saving device. If you
(00:28):
think about it, cardiac incidents like heart attacks, well they
really don't have much warning, if any. You might suddenly
find yourself out and about and in a situation where
somebody is on the ground right in front of you
fighting for their life. Now we know in that moment,
it's all about buying yourself more time. CPR is important,
but a device called an AED, an automated external defibrillator,
(00:51):
can do the best job at restarting that person's heart
before serious brain damage sets in or even death. Think
about it, though, do you know where the AED is
in your office or your apartment building? How about when
you're out in the subway, or maybe you're just at
your favorite store. I can't say I do all the time,
and it might seem like an afterthought to you as well.
But there's a nonprofit out there called Cardiac Crusade that
(01:14):
wants to change that and make it easy for you
to know. Their mission is simple, help nine to one
one dispatchers and everyday folks like you and I know
exactly where the AEDs are in as many places as possible.
So to do this, they've launched a brand new mapping
campaign where around the country volunteers are spreading out to
find them one by one. So that campaign is coming
(01:36):
here to Massachusetts and we can talk about it now.
Greg Kuhn is the founder of Cardiac Crusade. They are
based in Texas, now here in Massachusetts. Tyler Mola is
Cardiac Crusade's head of operations as they get things started here, gentlemen,
thank you both for your time. Greg. This is certainly
a very ambitious idea. Before we kind of get into
(01:56):
the nitty gritty of all this, i'd love to know
a bit of back round about Cardiac Crusade, where you
came up with this idea and how it's all kind
of come together up until now.
Speaker 2 (02:06):
So, my wife Julie had a sudden cardiac arrests in
twenty eighteen. She's part of the ten percent Survival Club,
and the big aha moment was I didn't know the
difference between a cardiac arrest and a heart attack, and
those are very very different. A heart attack is plumbing,
and so you have an artery it gets you know,
(02:28):
more and more clogged the as your heart tries to
push blood through your body. And it's more clogged, your
heart is working harder and harder, so you have the
traditional signs of shortness of breath, you know, no energy, numbness,
tingly on the left side usually, you know, chest pain,
you know, all those signs that we've that we hear
(02:50):
that's the heart. That's the heart attack happening. So you
can have signs for you know, minutes, hours, days, weeks longer.
If you go to the hospital, you can serve you know,
it's quite survivable, but it's one Typically guys are like,
I'll be fine. No, then it gets to a point
where it's too late. So as long as you pay
attention to the signs, you know, a heart attack is
(03:13):
quite survivable as long as you do those things. A
cardiac rest is electrical. It's like throwing water on a battery.
So Julie, my wife, had the cardiac arrest she had
zero blockage, healthy, she had no problems, and so but
what she did have at the at what they think
caused it. And if you've got a hundred cardiac arrest patients,
(03:36):
you've got a hundred different reasons why that person went
into cardiac arrest. Her heart was a little in the arch,
she had a virus, and she also had no potassium
in her blood in her in her system. If she
would have which is electrolytes, so if she would have
eaten up banana that morning, maybe who knows, she may
not have a head of cardiac arrest. So so now
(03:59):
her her heart's trying to push blood through her now
a little bit in large heart, and it's and it's
trying to do it, but it doesn't know how to
because there's the electrical systems kind of messed up, and
her heart just went from bit bump bump, bump, bump
bump to it's in the feb is what it's called.
But basically it's kind of shaking with his audio.
Speaker 1 (04:21):
So the best I cand is, you know, if you're listening,
he's he's shaking his hands around a little bit, so
you get the idea.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
Yeah, but this you know, this this is not pumping
blood through the body. It just goes yeah, exactly, and
so you you literally from one second to the next,
she was at her local high school talking to a
friend of hers after doing a charity event at the
high school, and they're just chit chatting, and from one
(04:49):
second to the next, she collapses and she is not breathing,
her heart's not beating. You know you. So when someone
goes into cardiac arrest, you first called nine to one one,
number two you start CPR, and number three you get
the a D. Now, CPR is essential because what it
(05:10):
is doing is it's it's using your your the compressions
that you're doing on the chest to help buy minutes.
You're extending the time that blood is continuing to go
to go through the body. The a the shock from
an a D is the only thing that will restart
the heart. You have to have the shock in order
(05:34):
to restart the heart. So what happens is now you're
doing can only one has been called. You've got CPR going,
which is great. A big question is, okay, where's that
a ED? Now I understand that why you need to
know where the a ED is. So there's the chain
of Survival nine one one cpr A D. But there's
(05:56):
a huge gap in there. Julie just happened to to
have her cardiac arrest right in the perfect place, at
the right time, with the right people, the right equipment.
They knew that the AD was in the gym, you know,
fifty feet away. But what if you're in a place
that you don't know that there's an AED in that
gym fifty feet away, or countless stories of people that
(06:17):
die because they and there was an AD fifty feet
away that they didn't know about. So there is a
huge gap that we're trying to fill and that's the
purpose of what we're doing. So now I understand the
difference between a cardiac arrest and a heart attack, because
as cardiac arrest, your brain starts to die in three minutes.
Have to You've got you've got to take immediate action.
(06:39):
You've got to jump on it and bystanders. You know,
it takes an ambulance for eight twelve minutes whatever it
is sure to get there. They may be on another
call and the person doesn't make it. I mean, there's
just that's just that's not survivable. After you get past
ten minutes past, you know, past that. Now I understand
(07:00):
how this all works. I'm at my desk after she
is out of the hospital, and I look at my
phone and I'm thinking, why is it that I can say, Hey, Google,
Hey Siri, where's the closest Starbucks? But I can't do
that with an A D good question. That's the crazy,
little silly idea that I came up. And you know,
(07:20):
now we're here and to this point, so so and
so I created a change dot org page. I posted
on Facebook, TechEd people and and it had a It
just kind of had a life of its own where
people were like, sign you know, sign this. So of
course Google and Apple Maps should have ades natively on
(07:43):
their on their maps, and then some and then we
got some media coverage and it was just kind of
the snowball effect. Someone who knew someone who knew someone
at Google Maps said hey, let's talk. So we have
had conversations. I can't go into any more details because
of you know, but we have had conversations with both
(08:03):
Apple Maps, and I'm sorry Google Maps and Apple Maps
to see what we can do. But this is not
just hey, there's a wheelchair ramp at this restaurant. And
add it to their maps. This involves life and death,
so we've had it to jump through a lot of hoops.
We'll get there.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
You have this great idea, obviously, and you clearly are
getting support not just from the public but also from
these companies. So what can you do right now to
start the process.
Speaker 2 (08:32):
There is postpoint is IS is our database partner, and
they're they're really the only good authority in ad mapping,
mainly because you verify that they're there. There are a
lot of lists out there and websites that have a list,
but this is the one that actually has volunteers go
out and map them and also confirm that they're there.
(08:55):
This database is available to nine to one one systems
in cities, town, counties, villages, states have access to this database,
so their nine to one one operators can say, hey,
you're calling there's a SUNN cardiac arrest victim at this location.
You start CPR, tell someone else to go across the
(09:15):
street to the restaurant X and go get the ad
bring it back. And if that takes forty five seconds
and the ambulance takes seven minutes, that's someone is living
compared to high living. So that database is now available
to nine one one systems. So that all being said,
i can't do it all by myself. We've got to
(09:38):
have volunteers, and we have an army of volunteers. So
last year we had a campaign in Buffalo, New York,
and Western New York to register as many AEDs as
we can. We had a goal of one thousand eighties.
We ended up mapping over twelve hundred AEDs. Nice though
we are now in Boston and in Massachusetts, well I'm sorry,
(10:00):
in Massachusetts and with a goal of mapping over fifteen
hundred AEDs. So let me let me uh, let me
do a statistic for you in Massachusetts. So the national
survival the survival rate for certn cardiac arrest is ten percent.
Ninety percent of those that have a cardiac arrest die.
(10:21):
In San Diego, where two thy six hundred plus AEDs
are mapped, their survival rate is between fifty and seventy percent.
Depends on where you are in the city. Of course,
there's a lot of variables in there, but generally that's
and you compare that to the national survival rate of
ten percent, that's a huge, huge difference. There are a
couple cities in eastern Massachusetts that have a survival rate
(10:45):
of three percent.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
Three which is thirty three three three percent, Yes, three percent.
Speaker 2 (10:54):
And this is Massachusetts, this is Boston Medical of the
not just everywhere everywhere the world. Yeah, which, and I
saw that that study that came out, and frankly, I
was like, that's crazy. And so we are. We are
on a mission to increase the survival rate of us
(11:16):
from some cardiac arrest in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
And that is where Tyler comes in. So Tyler, tell
me a little bit about why this matters to you
and why you wanted to get involved in this in
the first place.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
Yeah, of course.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
So I guess we'll flash back to August twenty twenty three.
My grandmother died of a suspected cardiac arrest, and so
obviously heartbreaking and devastating. And I'm going to fast forward
now to December twenty twenty four. My aunt has a
cardiac arrest but survives. Difference there ad was brought on scene,
(11:50):
I will say, my aunt, it was brought on scene
in the most timely manner, but it was there, and
she received shocks and now was alive because of them.
And so my cousin did who kind of started it.
Kind of I would say it wrote me in. Isn't
the right term, It sounds as a bad connotation, but
she was the one that brought me along and introduced
me to Greg back in late January early February.
Speaker 3 (12:10):
And so I joined Cardiaker.
Speaker 4 (12:12):
Saide as a result of those two events, mainly with
my aunts surviving and my cousin Andanielle introduced him to
the organization. But those two events were really what sparked
my interest in my dedication towards improving survival rich for
cardiac arrest.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
So how are you then working to get this done
in Massachusetts? I mean the statistic that Greg just came,
I'm still reeling over that. And like he was mentioning,
we have so many incredible medical facilities here in Massachusetts.
What's the plan here to get this done?
Speaker 3 (12:38):
Right?
Speaker 4 (12:39):
It is an egregiously low number, and I know standard
should be higher, especially here in Massachusetts. And I would say,
you know, where do I start with what we have
planned right now? We have had a lot of ongoing
conversations and we've done a lot in a short period
of time, which I think it just my optimism moving
forward and how fast already moving is just it's through
the moon, and so I'm really excited. But we have
planned so I guess I'll start from where I Really
(13:03):
we're building out our team, and I don't know if
Greg is mentioned already, but we're calling our team here
in the Boston Shock Squad, and I think it's a
great name and kind of encompasses our mission really, and
so I am connected. I work at the UMAs Tea
Medical schools is a research coordinator. I've done pre clinical
research for years and now I'm doing clinical and I
have friends that are med students here and actually old
(13:24):
college roommate of mine, So I approached him and I
was like, hey, like, are you interested in doing this
with us?
Speaker 3 (13:28):
And I wanted to bring him along on the team.
Speaker 4 (13:29):
He's a good friend of mine, dedicated kid, and he's
a med student, so his interests aligne and so they
actually started a cardiacer say club here at the medical school.
So we're a partnered organization with them, and so our
plan is to have med students get recruited to be
a part of this club and go out and map
here in Worcester in the central Massachusetts area, and then Actually, yesterday,
me and my friend Jack, the med student, we were
(13:50):
at Northeastern and we were in a nonprofit volunteer engagement
fair and I was telling them yesterday in our group chat.
I don't think there was one minute over the course
of that four hour event that we weren't talking engaging
with students. And so, you know, yeah, it's a wonderful
mission and it's really a no brainer. Greg and I
always say it all the time that it's a no
brainer to want to do this and get involved. And
we had a lot of pre med pre health students
(14:11):
that you know, understood our mission and understood the importance.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
And Greg, I didn't share this with you just yet.
Speaker 4 (14:16):
I wanted Jack to share with you. But I will
share with you today, Nicole, is that we had a
student come up. His father suffered cardec arrest and survived one.
And so we have that happen all the time when
we hear these stories, and it's like, that is the
point of our mission. We want to increase that likelihood
that someone else's dad has a tomorrow. And so we're
really just recruiting students and we have events coming up.
We've been working with the American Heart Association and they're
(14:37):
gonna They've been super supportive here in Massachusetts where we're
trying to find ways to collaborate, and they're including us
in events that really really help us with our awareness
and you know, increasing our I guess, the visibility of
what we're trying to do to the community and the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts. And so we have a lot of
things in you know, ongoing conversation, a lot of things planned,
and I think in the next couple of months you'll
(14:57):
really hear more about us and what we're trying to do,
especially with more volunteers being involved, and hopefully there's an
exponential increase in the amount of adds we map and
that are on post point.
Speaker 1 (15:05):
So is this only for med students or can anybody
help volunteer?
Speaker 4 (15:10):
No, No, this is a community This is a community mission,
and I think we've targeted students because there is a
I guess an incentive for them to join. You know,
there is selfish reasons, right, you know, they could add
this to their resume, but it also is it works
in Tantum. This is a great cause, of great mission
and it is truly going to save lives. But you know,
we have events. Like I said, we're going out in
the community. We want to recruit as many people as
possible that you know, one understand our mission, but two
(15:31):
may have been affected some way or another. So this
is not just for med students, just for students at all.
Like in general, it is for everyone to get involved.
We want as many people in the Commonwealth to be
involved as possible.
Speaker 1 (15:40):
So we'll talk about the events you have coming up
here in just a couple of minutes, Greg, though, I'd
love to know more about the training process. If somebody
wants to be a volunteer and wants to help map,
what do they have to do and how I'm assuming
they're not just barging into office buildings and saying, hey,
where's your aed I'm sure it's a little more complex
than that.
Speaker 2 (15:58):
Yes, there's a there's an online training. It takes twenty
minutes to go through. The training is free. We have
a website just for this, for the Massachusetts initiative. If
Cardiac Crusade dot org slash Boston, so go to the website.
You can find out you know about the upcoming event
(16:19):
that we've got that we'll talk about. But we also
have a link to the training and just click the link,
take go, do the training online for about twenty minutes,
send us the information that's requested at the end, and
you now have the ability to map and verify ADS,
which is which is amazing that once you verify an
AED and that it's there and you hit submit that
(16:40):
submit button is there's something so wonderful about hitting that
submit button because what you can do is, uh, as
soon as you hit submit, that AED is now available
to your local nine to one one system, that it
is there where it wasn't before. So the nine to
one to one operators as long as they're connected into
(17:01):
the Pulse Point database, and many are, many aren't, many
are thinking about it. Many it's like you know again,
like Tyler, it's a no brainer for these municipalities to
is free for them to connect it to it. And
so as soon as you hit submit, that nine to
(17:21):
one one operator will know that there's an AD at
that location and can direct people to go get that
AD in case of a sudden cardiac arrest.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
So timing wise, how long do you think it's going
to be or do you not know yet? It's okay
if you don't. When people are going to be able
to open up you know, Google or Apple or whatever
and be able to have this right in front of them,
or is that still a little further out at this point.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
You know, that's our dream. I keep whenever I describe
that we're going to do this, I always I use
the word soon, coming soon, because it's ambiguous. It's also
positive that you know that's going to happen.
Speaker 1 (17:56):
Soon, and so speak it into existence. They say, you
know what.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
If I keep saying soon, it's going to happen soon.
Right Our contact at at Google Maps said he we
were having a call, I know, a bit ago, and
he noticed a little frustration that it wasn't happening because
I want it to just push the button, click okay
or whatever exactly. And he said, Greg, I understand your
(18:26):
I feel I can feel you're a little frustrated, and
I'm like, you know, I'm at their whim. They can
just they can say, Greg, go away, we never want
to talk to you again. But they're not doing that.
Speaker 3 (18:35):
You know.
Speaker 2 (18:35):
I'm the thorn in their side that keeps doing this
this thing. And he goes, it'll happen. It might take
a month, it might take a year, it might be
ten years. But it will happen where you can say hey, Google, Hey, Siri,
where's the closest AD and it pops up. And it
can't be for for public purposes for our mission. It
(18:58):
can't be on a website. It can't be a list somewhere.
Excuse me. It can't even be PulsePoint because pulse Point
you have to open the app. You have to do
you know, so you have to do things in the meantime.
You don't if someone has a cardiac arrest and is
laying their lifeless next to you, you need to be
doing cpright.
Speaker 1 (19:18):
You're not sitting there scrolling your phone like, oh hold on,
I thought I had the app in there somewhere.
Speaker 2 (19:23):
You know passwords, and you know that's why it has
to be native where you say hey Google, hey Siri
and it pops up.
Speaker 1 (19:31):
Okay, but you know what I mean. The pulse Point
stuff that is helping first responders right away, and that
in itself is something to be celebrated and.
Speaker 2 (19:39):
Clear the other part of what we're doing. So you know,
we're populating the map with AD locations so that nine
to one one operators can have it. Now, remember Postpoint
is our database partner. So they would API the database
to these nine to one one systems throughout the country.
Same thing with Google and Apple Maps. When we add
these ads, we're not them to Google and Apple Maps servers.
(20:02):
They are a p I ing the data from pulse Point.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
They're plugging in.
Speaker 2 (20:08):
So the source for all a D locations is pulse Point.
Whether it's a good goes to the nine to one
one systems or ultimately to your smartphones.
Speaker 1 (20:19):
Right, anything that eventually could API into this. You are
doing the work by the community volunteer program getting out
there and making this database that will save lives. At
the end of the day. You're doing the grunt work now,
as they say, we're.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
Doing a lot of the gruntwhere and it's amazing. So
after so we're in the Dallas area, after Julie had
her her cardiac arrest in our local town, we went
to coffee with the the medical director for our city
for planning and I asked them, because now we know
(20:53):
about PulsePoint, we know about a D. It's in the
importance of knowing where they are and they're signed up
for their nine one one systems to connect to that database.
And I said, how many of the ADS that are
out there. Does Postpoint have in their database in the
in our city and you don't know what you don't know?
And he guessed maybe ten percent. Oh, I'm like, so
(21:14):
ninety percent of the ads that are out there and
available you don't know where they are. They're not going
to help save anyone if you don't know where they are. No, No,
that's that. That was another big statistic. Okay, ready for
another big statistic.
Speaker 1 (21:30):
Sure, lay it on me.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
Bring it. The national survival rate, like I said, is
ten percent. Yes, do you want to take a guess
on how what? What the what is the survival rate
if you get a shock within two minutes?
Speaker 1 (21:44):
Probably seventy five?
Speaker 2 (21:46):
You're wow. Most people go like forty fifty percent, eighty percent.
Speaker 1 (21:51):
I did take a Red Cross CPR class recently, so
that's what I'm kind of cheating, But yeah, no, I
know it is. It is incredibly beneficial. It is truly beneficial.
And those a eds they're not that big either. They've
been They've started to make them so small. I mean,
every business, if you ask me, you should have one
of these every classroom. I mean it's they're they're expensive, yes,
(22:15):
but they can do wonderful things. And they're pretty easy
to operate too, if I can learn how to do
it in a red Cross class. And I am not
a medically inclined person. I mean, there's no reason not
to have one right.
Speaker 2 (22:26):
And you can't. And part of it is that it
won't shock. It doesn't. It won't shock unless you're in
a shockabul rhythm, unless your heart's doing the waking. Yeah, yeah,
it's not gonna if your heart is going a bump,
a bump, it's normal beating normally. It's not going to
shock you. It will only do it when it can
bring somewhat into a shock from a uh that's in
(22:49):
a shockable rhythm into a normal heartbeat. So there are
some trainers I've seen they will put an a d
pad pads on them during training because they're like, I
don't want to do that, and they'll say shock, hit
the shock button and it won't shock them. So that
is proving that you know, it will only help. It
will only shock if they can help you cannot hurt someone.
(23:12):
I'm gonna do a little side story here. I actually
did CPR on a hockey player at a local rink
and he collapsed. He had a cardiac arrest. I started
doing CPR. And when I was doing CPR, and I
could feel and hear his ribs break, and people are afraid, Oh,
I don't want to break his ribs. It's like break away.
Speaker 1 (23:35):
You need to he's dead.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
You don't do it. So I knew I was doing
compressions the right way and deep enough, and he he lived.
Speaker 1 (23:44):
That's the most important thing, all right, So let's talk
about what's happening here in Massachusetts, Tyler. We've got the
army of volunteers that you're obviously working very hard to grow,
but you've also got this event coming up here on
October sixteenth. Tell me a little bit about the event.
It's all about how people can get involved soon and
so forth.
Speaker 4 (24:03):
Yeah, of course, So, like you said, October sixteenth, which
is actually a really special day. So it's National Restart
a Heart Day, and that's actually the official day that
we're kickstarting our campaign here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
That said, it doesn't mean you can't get.
Speaker 4 (24:13):
Involved now and start mapping ads, but that's when our
official campaign is going to start on National Reason Start
a Heart Day on October sixteenth. And so this event,
really we're gonna have a fun time. It's going to
be at a restaurant called Local in South Boston. We
invite everyone to join if you go to our website,
as Greg kind of already mentioned, there's a link to register,
and it's all over social media. If you go on
the Cardiac Crusade m a Instagram and you can go
(24:35):
to my social as well, Tyler dot Mola Instagram and
links there as well. But yeah, this event really is
just to introduce Cardiac Crusade into the Massachusetts community. We
want to invite everyone that's prospective volunteers and anyone else
that just wants to learn more about what we're all about.
We're gonna have Greg's gonna come in for this. Like
you said, he's in the Dallas area. I'm local, so
it's a drive up for me. Yeah, we're gonna have
Julie's Wife's going to be there, another one of our
(24:57):
members of the Boston Shock Squad.
Speaker 3 (24:58):
She's a kardiak or resurvivor as well.
Speaker 4 (24:59):
So they're both going to speak about their stories and
why this is important to them and why this truly
matters and can actually save a lot of lives in
our community here in Massachusetts. But like I said, Yeah,
it's gonna be fun. We're gonna have a raffle for
people to kind of can win fun prizes we've had
And this is one thing too that I've been utterly
shocked about as a support that we receive from the
community local services. I mean, we probably have fifty plus
(25:22):
donations that we've received for this event. So we have
a mix of a raffle that we're going to do
for local services as well as an auction for maybe
more higher ticket items.
Speaker 3 (25:31):
We have a lot of sports memorabilia that have been.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
Donated, so it'll be an event that again we just
want to welcome people to join us and learn more
about us, but also have a good time. It's going
to be like I said, at local it's a really
great atmosphere, make the theme more heartfelt. Pun is intended there.
So yeah, yeah, everyone. The website, like I said, has
a linked to register, so we invite everyone to join us.
Speaker 1 (25:50):
And this is the Boston Shock Squad. But again you're
based out in Central Mass and plenty of other people
are not that far of a drive from Boston, so
we're talking like New hamp Sure, Providence. They're all welcome too.
I'm assuming correct.
Speaker 3 (26:03):
Oh, of course, yeah, we want this.
Speaker 4 (26:05):
This is a Massachusetts campaign, but the goal is to
expand from city to city, and I don't want to
you know, I'm not trying to speak for Greg here,
but yeah, we want to expand and be a national organization.
And then, like you said, he did a Buffalo campaign.
Now we're in Massachusetts and the goal is to keep
bouncing around.
Speaker 3 (26:18):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (26:19):
Sure, I mean getting those AEDs on the South Shore,
maybe a Metro West or Cape ann whatever, as long
as they're around the greater Boston area or even in
central mass If you're in New Hampshire, you're listening. If
you're in Rhode Island, you're listening. October sixteenth, this is
going to be in South Boston over at Loco Loco,
over at Loco in South Boston. And again you are
(26:40):
collecting donations here. So what do you need when it
comes to donations. Do you want just the volunteers, do
you need the money? Do you need both? Tell me
a little bit about that.
Speaker 2 (26:50):
Yes, yes, and yes we need all We did all
of the above. So you know, donations are going to
help a lot things for our volunteers. One of the
things we learned Buffalo for example, is we had a
lot of volunteers. We had great success in Buffalo, but
people would just come in, We're in their street clothes
and knock on the door, Hey do you have an
A D. And they're like who are you? And yeah,
(27:12):
exactly what are you doing? And who what's your name?
And you know, So we want to get shirts for
all of our volunteers, let's say Crusade volunteer, So that
would be a huge help and also just funding what
we're doing, and we need to get social media out there.
We need you know, it would just get word out
is going to be the biggest thing that we can
(27:32):
do other than the other than the donations, having volunteers.
So you know, everything is pretty much listed on the
Cardiac Crusade dot org slash Boston fabulous uh site. It's
all there, including free tickets and free admission to the
to our event which gives you a look at see
what's for auction. You can uh you can uh bid
(27:55):
on the auction whether you're there in person or remotely.
You can be anywhere and on some of these auction
items and just kind of keeping keeping in touch with
what we're.
Speaker 1 (28:05):
Doing right phenomenal.
Speaker 4 (28:06):
Do you want to I want to reiterate and emphasize
like this is a volunteer driven initiative, and so the
biggest help that you can have for us is to
become a.
Speaker 3 (28:13):
Volunteer in map ads.
Speaker 4 (28:15):
The donations are great, doming wrong, We're going to use
them wisely to support our volunteers. But this is volunteer driven,
and so if you want to support us in the
best way possible, become a volunteer and help us map
ads around Massachusetts.
Speaker 1 (28:26):
Say, if there's somebody who works at a corporation that
might be local or a business that might want to
help you out, are you looking for connections in that
way too.
Speaker 4 (28:34):
I have a friend of mine his girlfriend. They do
a lot of this kind of work where the company
is interested in doing some sort of community engagement, volunteer
driven initiative, and so we're trying to at least I'm
trying to on my and organize stuff like that where
we can get companies and organizations involved to do maybe
a mapping day or we're still working on what type
of basis, but weekly, bi weekly, monthly, whatever that kind
(28:55):
of regular schedule is. But we want to have an
on a regular schedule so that they can cover you know,
if it's one neighborhood today and then the next time
it's another or certain radius or groups go out. You
know that we're still fine tuning all of that. But
that's kind of like like you said, like you alluded to,
that's kind of what we want to do is do
mapping gay so that we can cover area with large
amounts of people to make it most efficient.
Speaker 1 (29:14):
Okay, Well, Cardiac Crusade dot org slash Boston. Got again,
Cardiac Crusade dot org slash Boston Tyler, Greg, what an
incredible initiative you've got going on here. Obviously it came
out of tragedy, but you're saving a lot of lives.
So thank you both for your time and your efforts
and your energy, and I wish you all the best
as you start rolling this out here in Massachusetts.
Speaker 2 (29:36):
Thank you so much for having us.
Speaker 3 (29:37):
Yeah, thank you so much.
Speaker 1 (29:39):
Have a safe and healthy weekend. Please join me again
next week for another edition of the show. I'm Nicole
Davis from WBZ News Radio on iHeartRadio.
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