- Charged Hearts is an FBLA community service project focused on bringing awareness to heart health.
- The team collaborated with Lynbrook clubs like Interact and Public Art Club to conduct activities raising awareness of heart issues
- The team also presented in PE classes about how to keep your heart healthy and the dangers of sudden cardiac arrest for young athletes.
As part of a yearly initiative by FBLA, freshmen Caroline Feng and Kesshavan Kirubaharan, sophomore Eva Sharma, juniors Amber Lai, Kristy Zhu and Ivy Zan and senior lead Alexis Cheng founded the service project Charged Hearts at the beginning of the school year to spread awareness about cardiovascular health. The team pushed for cardiovascular education in school clubs and PE classes, as well as on Instagram to spotlight neglected issues that could potentially harm students, such as sudden cardiac arrest.
FBLA members create annual community service projects to address local issues. After learning about the dangers of sudden cardiac arrest, a medical emergency in which one’s heartbeat abruptly stops, Cheng founded Charged Hearts to educate others about the medical condition.
“As an athlete, when I first heard about sudden cardiac arrest, I was so surprised, because I was wondering how someone healthy would have their heart stopped in the middle of a game,” Cheng said. “More people need to know about this, because I didn’t even know about this before I was specifically looking for it.”
Cheng and her team presented to students during the first 20 minutes of every PE class on Thursdays and Fridays in late November on the symptoms of sudden cardiac arrest and the necessary response.
“It’s hard to connect with the student body often,” Cheng said. “I thought that bringing education to the classes would be a great way to reach more people and ensure that they’re actually participating.”
Charged Hearts collaborated with Interact Club in an event where students could make bookmarks for patients going through rehabilitation from cardiac arrest.
“I really love how this activity reminded us that not only does physical support for heart health matter, but emotional support matters too,” junior and Interact Club member Trishna Sinha said.
In another collaboration with Public Art Club, volunteers worked together to create a colorful chalk art mural saying “Heart Health Matters,” along with heart illustrations, on the concrete outside the gym.
Outside of school, Charged Hearts worked with local nonprofits such as Mended Hearts to distribute cards to heart disease patients. In the future, Cheng and her team are planning to create recipe cards for heart-healthy meals for the South Valley FISH Food Pantry.
Currently, Cheng and her team is submitting a report for the pre-judged portion of the FBLA competition in hopes of qualifying for the state-level competition. Though Cheng will be graduating in June, the team hopes to continue the project at Lynbrook next year.
“This is my first time in an interactive event within FBLA and getting involved in my community,” Lai said. “It was just a really fun opportunity to work with others and help organize events.”
