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Northbrook parents raise money in teen’s memory
Northbrook, 09/28/12--Michele Snyder lost her 17 year old daughter Jenny to sudden cardiac arrest four years ago and now is on a mission to see that AEDs are available wherever sports and vigorous activity take place. | Jon Langham~for Sun-Times Media
Tickets for “An Uncensored Evening of Celebrity Entertainment” are $50-$150 and can be purchased at Ticketmaster.com.
ABC Sports’ Michael Wilbon will be the Master of Ceremony, and WSCR-AM 670 The Score’s Dan McNeil will be the host.
The event will feature: comic headliner Bobby Collins and former Chicago Bear Steve “Mongo” McMichael.
Awards will be presented to the Class of 2012 inductees into the Sports Hall-of-Fame.
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Updated: November 5, 2012 6:21AM
NORTHBROOK
Northbrook teenager Jennifer Lynn Snyder died in 2008, but her memory lives on through two organizations trying to protect youngsters from the sudden cardiac arrest that took her life.
The Jennifer Lynn Snyder Teen Heart Foundation, which is active on the North Shore, and Parent Heart Watch, which operates across the country, are fighting sudden cardiac arrest in several ways.
They are holding a benefit at 8 p.m. Saturday through Sports Radio’s 25th Anniversary Celebration, “An Uncensored Evening of Celebrity Entertainment” at the Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State St., Chicago.
Jenny loved sports, so an event like this is fitting, said her mother, Michele Snyder, who is the founder of the Jennifer Lynn Snyder Teen Heart Foundation, and executive director of Parent Heart Watch.
Jenny was only 17 years old and about to begin her senior year at Glenbrook North High School when she was struck by sudden cardiac arrest.
“She went to soccer practice in Glenview, and collapsed. Like so many other kids who die of sudden cardiac arrest, death was her first symptom,” Michele said. “It doesn’t have to be that way – sudden cardiac arrest is often preventable. There are things parents and communities should be doing to protect youth from this tragedy.”
Michele noted that besides fundraising to support the fight against sudden cardiac arrest, the organizations she represents support early detection and making automated external defibrillators accessible where youngsters gather.
They also support training people in CPR and AEDs, as well as having an emergency action plan, she added.
“We want to place AEDs outdoors throughout the North Shore community, so if kids are playing baseball or soccer, and there is a need, the machines are available,” Michele said. “Even if a perfectly healthy kid gets hit in the chest with a baseball, and that split second it interrupts the rhythm of the heart, an AED could save him.”
Both Mandi Carozza, 22, who was Jenny’s best friend since sixth grade, and Jenna Schloss, who became a friend of Jenny’s in fourth grade, are actively working against sudden cardiac arrest.
“I know how to operate an AED, which is probably the most substantial way to save someone’s life. It’s pretty straight forward, and most of them even tell you what to do,” said Carozza, now a senior at the University of Iowa.
“Someone as young as a middle schooler would be able to operate one.”
Schloss, now a senior at Tulane University in New Orleans, La., said she and her friends made certain they had EKGs after Jenny’s death.
“We should all learn how to do CPR and operate AEDs,” she added. “I couldn’t imagine how I’d feel if I was there when something happened and didn’t know how to use the machine.”
Donations may be sent to: Jennifer Lynn Snyder Teen Heart Foundation, 2732 Spenser Court,
Northbrook, 60062.
