As part of its ongoing partnership with the American Heart Association’s Orange County Division, Visit Anaheim has donated eight life-saving CPR kits to two more high schools in its local community.

Launched in November 2017 in conjunction with the AHA, the CVB’s multi-year Heart-to-Heart campaign was created to give back to local residents by providing more than 15,000 Anaheim high school students with life-saving CPR skills and education. 

“Inspired by American Heart Association’s decision to host their 2017 Scientific Sessions at the Anaheim Convention Center after a 16-year absence and with their commitment to return in 2025, Visit Anaheim’s Heart-to-Heart campaign celebrates and supports the association’s relentless mission to help educate and train our future to fight heart disease,” said Jay Burress, president and CEO of Visit Anaheim. 

Since the campaign’s launch, the CVB has been working to provide each of the eight Anaheim Union High Schools with multiple AHA CPR in Schools Training Kits, starting with the donation of eight kits to Katella and Anaheim high schools in 2017, and four kits each to Loara and Western high schools last November.

By 2021, the CVB has pledged that all eight Anaheim Union District High Schools will be equipped with enough CPR kits to train every student.

Besides enabling students to learn the lifesaving skills of CPR in only one class period, the easy-to-use kits also teach Automated External Defibrillator use and choking relief. 

Designed specifically for the needs of schools, the kit’s new wheeled bag allows for convenient movement from classroom to classroom and easy storage. It’s also reusable, with one kit able to train hundreds of people.

Each CPR kit includes 10 mannequins to train up to 20 students at one time, and the AHA facilitates a CPR demonstration to each school’s faculty to ensure proper CPR training is offered to students.

According to the Orange County Health Profile, heart disease is the leading cause of death in Orange County, Ca., with roughly 70 percent of cardiac arrests occurring at home and 90 percent of those victims not surviving due to the people around them not knowing how to administer CPR. 

By providing Anaheim high school students with CPR education and training, the hope is that more lives will be able to be saved in Anaheim and Orange County, according to Visit Anaheim officials.

In November, Visit Anaheim will celebrate the third year of Heart-to-Heart by donating 16 CPR kits to the remaining four high schools, resulting in a total of 32 CPR kits that will have been donated to local city high schools.

“Giving back to our local community is a fundamental part of what we do as an organization, so to be able to make such a direct, positive impact on our city’s future year-after-year is an opportunity we fully embrace,” Burress said.

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