Taking a few hours out of your day every two years to become CPR certified can save a life. That inspired Daniel Volodarsky, ’27, to found the American Heart Association (AHA) Heart Club on campus about a year ago.
This year, the club received a $1,500 national American Heart Association grant to encourage and hold more CPR certification classes.
On the pre-health track, Volodarsky found that acquiring volunteering hours can be difficult. He founded the AHA Heart Club to make volunteering easier for pre-health students.
“I wanted to make different events that you can monitor at, that are more accessible,” Volodarsky said. “I wanted to experience more of a volunteering aspect … broaden our horizons a little bit and go more into the W&L community.”
Volodarsky said the grant will help the club fund the resources it needs to host more CPR certification classes on campus.
“With this new grant, that allows us to hold mass classes because we were limited by mannequin amounts and AED [automated external defibrillator] amounts,” Volodarsky said. “Now we’re trying to just expand that system … increase our instructor amount too.”
In the past, the club faced challenges with covering the price to certify people. A class typically costs between $80 and $100. But with the grant, the club can cover some of the cost of the class.
“I would like to increase our amount [of CPR certifications] by reducing the cost, making it free and just certifying as many people as we can,” Volodarsky said.
With these costs covered, Volodarsky said he can prioritize expanding the club’s connections to the local community.
Since starting the club, Volodarsky and the club’s other executive members have tabled to raise money for charity, sold plants to promote healthy breathing and shared recipes and food for good heart health.
“I definitely would love to keep raising money for charity,” Volodarsky said.
Treasurer Elizabeth Sawicki, ’29, said she joined the club earlier this year to learn more about the medical field.
“Heart health is a really important part of life that I believe is not touched on enough, but it should be,” she said.
Sawicki is on the pre-veterinarian track. She said the club isn’t just for pre-med students.
“Our president, Danny, has taken the initiative in helping find animal connections in the area that we can maybe bring into our program and open up our club to a whole new slew of people,” Sawicki said. “Through this, I hope to get more hands-on time with animals and build more connections through the community.”
She said the time members put into the club is well worth it.
“I believe it is a valuable life-saving skill that everyone should know,” Sawicki said. “Especially if you were to find yourself in a situation where CPR was needed. It doesn’t take too much time to learn, and that little time you took to learn the skill could save someone’s life.”
