The 3rd Annual Bolt for the Heart Family Run/Walk took place at Washington Park & Beach in Michigan City on Saturday afternoon. Presented by Franciscan Health, the event was able to gather donations that went directly towards purchasing automated external defibrillators (AEDs) for patrol vehicles of the La Porte and Michigan City Police Departments.
Bolt for the Heart is a foundation that was founded and built upon supplying law enforcement vehicles with AEDs to aid officers in rescuing community members in the event of cardiac arrest. These life-saving devices are crucial, and Bolt for the Heart’s work to place more and more of these AEDs in as many places in our communities as possible has a huge impact.
“I think in our community it's important to make sure everybody's safe, stays healthy, and has the necessary services when needed,” said Mayor of LaPorte Tom Dermody. “When you talk about saving somebody's life – which needs to happen in a matter of minutes – it is really good to have an AED in a car where an officer can save the life of one of our residents. We are a law enforcement community, we support our police, and what Julie West and the Bolt for the Heart group have done to make sure we can get as many AEDs as possible in each of these cars has been tremendous.”
Erin Davis and her family participated in the 5k run/walk for their Beats for Bub foundation, which began for her son Colton Davis who tragically passed away at the age of 12 from cardiac arrest.
“We started the Colton Davis Foundation just recently, two years ago. We unfortunately lost Colton; he passed away and unfortunately there was not an AED available,” said Davis. “We are trying to bring awareness for CPR and AED certification and training and get some ad placements in our community and public places.”
404 eager community members came out and participated in the Bolt for the Heart 5k family run/walk. Despite the fact that it was a chilly fall morning, it did not stop the supporters from enjoying the event to get some movement for their own health and to support and fundraise for a good cause.
City of La Porte Chief of Police Paul Brettin shared some of his thoughts surrounding how special it is to welcome events like these to the city as they bring such a positive energy and evoke lasting, impactful change in the community.
“It's tremendous to see the community support and to see how many walkers and runners are out here. You can’t describe the feeling,” said Brettin.
Also in attendance was Isaac Bules, cross country coach at South Central High School. As a leader of athletes, Bules has a special appreciation for advocating for heart health and supporting causes that spread awareness about AEDs and the training behind them.
“Our community has been affected and the loss has been felt, so anything we can do to prevent that from happening again, we’re going to do the best we can,” said Bules.
For more information about Franciscan Health, visit its website at www.franciscanhealth.org.