GENEVA — Linette Derminer is running against a clock, “a ticking time bomb,” as she calls it, working to save the lives of children who don’t even know they are in danger.
Derminer is the founder of the Kids Endangered Now (KEN) Heart Foundation, which raises awareness and prevention of sudden cardiac arrest in youth and athletes by providing Automatic External Defibrillators (portable electric shock devices that restore a proper heart rhythm) to local organizations and locations. The foundation recently donated a defibrillator to Geneva Little League and will soon present one to Mt. Carmel schools, Derminer said.
Derminer, founder of the Kids Endangered Now (KEN) Heart Foundation, lost her teenage son, Ken Derminer, to sudden cardiac arrest in 2000.
Ken Derminer, 17, died as he participated in a football clinic at Geneva High School.
But Derminer and her volunteers’ concerns go deeper than defibrillators as the KEN Heart Foundation expands to include education and preventative heart defect screening for youths and student athletes.
“We hold the weekly bingo games to raise money for the defibrillators, but now we have the North Coast Run for Hearts to raise money for student EKG’s (electrocardiogram),” she said.
An electrocardiogram is a simple test that detects and records the electrical activity of the heart. It is used to detect and locate the source of heart problems.
Derminer hopes to raise $10,000 to $20,000 to start the EKG testing program with The North Coast Run for Hearts.
The North Coast Run for Hearts will be held at 9:30 a.m. Oct. 4 at Recreation Park at Geneva-on-the-Lake.
The race is a 10K certified course, a 5K run, and a one-mile fun run and walk. Registrants receive a T-shirt and door prizes and giveaways will be available. Prizes will be awarded for the top three overall male and female winners and the top three male and female in each age division. Cost for early registration is $15 for adults. Registration on Oct. 4 is $20 for adults, $10 for students and a family of five can run for $45. Registration begins at Lakefront Restaurant at noon Oct. 2 and 3.
The event also includes the Goblet of Glory, a challenge to all Lake and Ashtabula county police departments. The department with the best overall time wins the Goblet of Glory. Geneva-on-the-Lake Officer Ryan Ball took the goblet last year.
Derminer said her mission has Ken’s name, but her focus is on somebody else’s child.
“I have already had the worst happen to me,” Derminer said. “But I know somebody’s kid is walking around with a ticking time bomb. I know I can help save that kid. Every time we do something I think ‘We can do more.’ I know we can do more.”
For more information on the North Coast Run for Hearts call Lisa Bruckman at (440) 344-1691 or email lbruck13@alltel.net or visit www.northcoastrun.com.
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