Walk of Life: Mikey Families and Organizations

Every year the Mikey Network helps to organize a team for the Walk Of Life. The annual event which you can do as a walk or a run is a wonderful way to spend your Saturday. There are tons of fun events that you can do with your family and all of the money that is raised by the Mikey Network’s team goes towards educational programs that advocate for heart health or placements of defibrillators to families or organizations.

As we lead up to the walk, we want to let those that have supported us see where their donations have gone. This week we’re talking about The Mikey’s Kids program and our donations to various organizations.

Mikey’s Kids Program

As a parent, your child’s safety is always a top of mind concern. You want to make sure that they’re always safe and looked after. As we’ve discovered with many families that we’ve dealt with, having a child with a heart condition can certainly be unnerving as it can feel like you’re helpless to protect them.

Can there be anything more terrifying than seeing a child collapse suddenly and stop breathing? And can you imagine the frustration of feeling helpless in such an emergency?

We wanted to help with this, and to give families peace of mind so that they’re not fearful of an emergency because of their child’s heart condition.

Families whose children are at high risk of SCA are provided with a MIKEY, a portable automated external defibrillator (AED), to carry with them at all times so their kids are protected at home, school or play.

Families that are in need of a MIKEY defibrillator reach out to our organization to apply. They’re then given to families, along with a set of instructions on how to use it and maintain the AED. The defibrillators that we provide would not be possible without the donations that are raised at the Walk of Life.

Organizations

The Mikey Network understands that a sudden cardiac arrest can happen anywhere, and for this reason, we want to make sure that they’re as readily available to the public as fire alarms and fire extinguishers are.

To accomplish this, The Mikey Network works with organizations in the community that are in need of a defibrillator. Their needs will vary from helping to save lives with a MIKEY defibrillator; to housing large-scale events with many attendees, such as a sports facility.

This past weekend we provided two new MIKEY’s to the Canadian Ski Patrol’s motorcycle division, which will help them to save lives in emergency situations. This division has been very successful,  saving two lives in 2016 with their MIKEY’s. Pictured below are Marion Karol, VP of Operations for Canadian Ski Patrol, and members of their team.

if you’re an organization that is interested in applying for a MIKEY, you can apply here.