Falcons, Blank Family Foundation award $600K for cardiac emergency preparedness grant

After Buffalo Bills player Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field, suffering cardiac arrest, mid-game in January 2023, the football world and communities across the United States came together to support his recovery.

That month, Arthur Blank, his family and the Atlanta Falcons gave $25,000 to the American Heart Association in honor of Hamlin and his fight.

Now, just over a year later, the Blank Family Foundation and the Falcons are giving a combined $600,000 to three organizations as a grant aimed at cardiac emergency preparedness.

The funds will be going to the American Heart Association, Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and Emory University.

Citing Hamlin’s experience on the field and the medical emergency that happened, the Blank Family Foundation’s announcement said that the incident led to a national discussion about emergency preparedness in sports and the lifesaving use of both CPR and emergency defibrillators.

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Blank, a Home Depot founder and owner of the Falcons, said the work meant a lot to him due to his family history.

“I hold a deep appreciation for organizations that educate our communities about life-saving cardiac measures,” Arthur M. Blank, owner and chairman, Blank Family of Businesses, said in a statement. “This work is personal to me as I lost my father to heart disease when I was 15. Education and training are the most powerful tools to prevent heart health tragedies and increase awareness, and I’m proud that our family foundation and the Atlanta Falcons are continuing to come together to support organizations leading this crucial effort.”

Additionally, newly hired Falcons Head Coach Raheem Morris was credited as “playing a pivotal role” in the revival of a “lifeless three-year-old boy who was pulled from the bottom of a pool” in 2023.

“You never know when an emergency is going to take place, and it’s tremendously important to know what to do in that instance. I’m very grateful to have gone through the training last summer which prepared me to act when an emergency occurred on our family vacation, and prepared others to act in similar situations,” Morris said in part. “The work of the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation and healthcare partners to provide CPR training to communities, while donating AEDs to schools and community organizations throughout Georgia, is outstanding and will help to save lives.”

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The Blank Foundation announcement said that, across the globe, cardiac arrests claim more lives that multiple types of cancer, flu, pneumonia, car accidents, HIV, guns and house fires combined.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports that about 356,000 people have out-of-hospital cardiac arrests every year in the U.S. In Georgia, the most common cause of death reported in the CDC’s mortality report is heart disease.

“What we know is that over 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen every year and more than 90% of those that go into cardiac arrest do not survive. The power is in our hands to change this,” said Carla Smith, region senior vice president and executive director of the Metro Atlanta American Heart Association. “Increasing the number of bystanders that are equipped with the tools needed to respond in the event of a cardiac emergency through CPR and AED use could save the life of a family member, friend, neighbor or stranger. Through the collaboration with the Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation and the Atlanta Falcons, we will continue to be relentless in our efforts to extend the chain of survival across metro Atlanta and build a Nation of Lifesavers.”

According to the Blank Foundation, the funds will be split with $250,000 going to the American Heart Association for their CPR education program the Nation of Lifesavers, while another $250,000 was given to Emory University for it to launch its own CPR Emergency PRepapredness program, and final $100,000 was given to Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta for their Project S.A.V.E. initiative, which works to prevent sudden cardiac arrest in children, teenagers and young adults.

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