The Mikey Network

AED’s For Schools To Remember Griffin

On February 24, 2017, during recess, Griffin Martin was playing outside with his friends at school, when he paused and fell down. To his friend’s it looked like a practical joke, but they soon realized that he wasn’t joking around. Griffin was suffering from a cardiac arrest.

After noticing the incident, school officials began attempts to resuscitate Griffin. Paramedics and ER doctors continued their efforts but were ultimately unsuccessful.

Griffin’s family reflected on the incident and wondered if something more could have been done to help him. They came to the conclusion that with the assistance of an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) during those first moments of his cardiac arrest, he may have had a better chance of surviving.

To honor Griffin’s memory, his family has launched a fundraiser to place AED’s in Ottawa schools so that kids may have a better opportunity of surviving a similar situation.

Griffin’s family has teamed up with The Mikey Network to help raise funds to provide AED’s for Ottawa schools, support AED training for staff, and ensure AED registration.

Please join us in supporting their AED’s For Schools campaign. Visit aedsforschools.com to learn more about Griffin’s story and to make a donation.

September 25, 2017

Heart Healthy Recipes For Teenagers

Heart Health Education, News & Events

As teenagers attend class, they learn about important school subjects like biology and history, so should they learn about heart-healthy food. Today more than ever food’s available to students have added salts, fats, or sugars, and are generally unhealthy for the developing body. Often when consuming these unhealthy products, students are aware that some products aren’t good for them, but are simply unaware of others like processed juice, which will often have high amounts of sugar added. It’s important to establish an understanding of what is good for the body and what isn’t early on in life as recent studies have suggested that the healthier kids are as they grow up, the greater the chance that they will remain that way later on in life. Young men and women need to be able to have a good understanding of nutrition and healthy recipes so that they can lay these foundations.

We encourage you to check out some of these heart-healthy recipes that we’ve used, as well as some of our older favorites.

Some Heart Healthy Recipes

Tilapia and Vegetables

Apple Cranberry Crisp

Minestrone Soup

Apple Pancakes recipe

Peachy Chicken Salad

Do you have a heart-healthy recipe that you would like to share? Send your recipes to info@mikeynetwork.com

September 21, 2017

Ways that your child can learn about heart-health at school

Featured, Heart Health Education, News & Events

As students head back to school there is often a lot to occupy their time during the first few weeks of the semester. They’re catching up with friends, joining clubs, and beginning their studies. All of these activities are highly important while progressing through high school, but one that should be added is learning about heart-health.

Each year in Ontario, children and teens are among the 6,500 people who experience sudden cardiac arrest. Although the amount of youth that is affected by cardiac arrest is much smaller than that of adults, we at The Mikey Network know that it’s important to teach good practices early on, so that students are prepared for emergencies in the future.

Heart-health isn’t limited to just learning how to perform CPR or how to save a life using first aid. It’s also about retaining a healthy lifestyle. Learn about some of the ways that your child can become involved in more heart-healthy forms of education.

Mikey Young at Heart APP

Not only does the Mikey Young at Heart app provide students with the opportunity to earn volunteer hours that they will need to graduate, but they will also learn how to use an AED or perform CPR in emergency situations. Students begin the process by downloading the app and registering online. Then they earn their volunteer hours by watching instructional videos and completing the course’s exercises.

Health Class

What these health classes are called will vary by school but will focus on teaching students the proper understanding of CPR, first aid, and the human anatomy. Registering for this course can give students a hands on approach to scenario’s that they may deal with if they were to face an emergency situation in real life. Students will also learn about the human anatomy which will provide them with further information on how the rest of the body functions. These classes are of great benefit to those who are looking to enter any medical profession later on in life.

Physical Education/ Sports

Having an active lifestyle is one of the best steps that you can take to prevent heart disease and cardiac arrest. Students that are enrolled in a physical education class or in an extracurricular sport will benefit from learning how to regularly perform a physical workout routine from a trained professional. Some schools will go even further by providing sports academies for students, where they’ll learn about sport/life balance and more advanced topics like Kinesiology.

Cooking

Most high school students don’t have a good understanding of the nutritional effect that foods will have on their health. If your child is enrolled in cooking classes, they will learn how to cook meals to get through each and every day, while also learning about the proper nutrition that each meal will provide. Building an understanding of what is and isn’t a heart-healthy meal early on in their lives will help them to retain a healthier lifestyle.

These are just some of the things that can help to benefit your child’s heart-health. Regardless of what they do, or what courses they take, what’s important is that they are actively looking to improve their health and learn how to live a healthy lifestyle.

September 14, 2017

Canada’s 911 Ride A Huge Success!

News & Events

Every year the Canada 911 Foundation holds an annual motorcycle ride called Canada’s 911 Ride, to raise funds and awareness for families of fallen emergency service personnel, children who were victims of violent crimes, and The Mikey Network. This year’s events were hugely successful and involved lots of fun, emotional stories, and the thunderous roar of motorcycle engines.

This year’s annual police escorted motorcycle ride took place in both Atlantic Canada and Ontario, to build awareness for their cause as well as assist The Mikey Network in presenting MIKEY’s to families and organizations.

This past weekend was the Ontario ride, which saw The Mikey Network delivering two MIKEY’s during the two-day event. The first day began at the Nottawasaga Inn in Alison, ON, and eventually lead to a stop in Severn ON, to donate a MIKEY in memory of Eric Dowell, the Director of Fire and Emergency Services of Severn. On the second day, the ride drove through Durham region and Claremont, to donate a MIKEY to the wife of Paul O’Brien in memory of the firefighter from Pickering, ON.

Canada’s 911 Ride have been huge supporters of The Mikey Network, with their total donations amounting to $221,000 since 2007, which has enabled us to place 105 MIKEYS to needing families and organizations. This year The Mikey Network was fortunate to receive a donation of $10,000 from Canada’s 911 Ride Foundation to support our initiatives.

If you’re interested in participating in next year’s ride or donating to the cause, check out the Canada 911 Foundation web page.

Here are some pictures from this year’s amazing event. Click on any image to open full-screen gallery.

September 7, 2017

Family from Cornwall, ON receive MIKEY donation

News & Events

We’re happy to announce that another family has received a MIKEY defibrillator through our Mikey’s Kids program!

This past week, the Mikey Network donated a MIKEY to Jamie, Maileen, and Brody of Cornwall, Ontario. We’re happy to share this beautiful photo of the family after they received their MIKEY.

This specific MIKEY was donated by the Canadian Homebuilders Association through funds provided by past presidents and presented on behalf of 2016 president, Bob Finnigan. The MIKEY was shipped to the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario, where the family was able to pick it up and be taught the proper instructions on how to use it.

Having a portable defibrillator like a MIKEY can literally be lifesaving to parents with children who have heart problems like little Brody. Having one on hand can offer ease of mind in knowing that they can help their child if an emergency situation were to arise.

Learn more about the Mikey’s Kids program and read the testimonials of other Mikey Families here. You can also help to create more opportunities for other families like this one by donating to The Mikey Network here.

September 1, 2017