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Reasons For the GMF
Gregory W. Moyer was a fifteen year-old
sophomore playing basketball for Notre Dame High School in East
Stroudsburg Pennsylvania on the night he died, December 2, 2000. Notre
Dame was playing a game in a brand new, multi-million dollar school. The
school didn’t have a defibrillator and was far removed from emergency
medical services. Greg walked off the court at half-time. Two minutes
later, he collapsed on the floor of the locker room from cardiac arrest
brought on by hypertrophic cardiomyopathy. He died shortly thereafter.
A nurse
from the emergency room urged us to do something to make sure other
families were spared the tragedy ours had suffered. She suggested starting
a fund to buy defibrillators for local schools. Thus, we started Greg’s
Fund to raise enough money to donate AEDs to the five high schools in our
county. By the time of Greg’s funeral, enough money had already been
donated to purchase seven AEDs. Obviously, Greg’s death allowed people to
put a face with a cause.
A month
after Greg’s death, we were contacted by the Pennsylvania Free and
Accepted Masons. Their state-wide project for 2001 was the placement of
300 AEDs throughout the Commonwealth. They graciously agreed to fund half
of the cost of up to thirty AEDs that we would donate. Money was still
streaming into Greg’s Fund as news of his death reached more and more
people. About the same time, we began working with Representative Kelly
Lewis on legislation to foster placement of AEDs in schools.
It became
clear that our modest fund set up to donate AEDs to local schools had
grown far beyond our widest dreams. We felt the scope of the Fund needed
to be broadened substantially to better meet the needs of people who were
striving to introduce AED programs to save the lives of kids like Greg.
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