Greater Bay Shore coverage is funded in part by Shoregate, now leasing brand-new premium apartment homes in the heart of Bay Shore. Click here to schedule a tour.
Southside Hospital’s heart health education program, known as BEAT, has just received a $10,000 donation from the local charity Gavin’s Got Heart.
In an announcement Wednesday, hospital officials described the donation at “crucial.”
The money comes from various fundraisers that had benefitted Gavin’s Got Heart, which provides financial and emotional support for families with children affected by congenital heart defects.
(See video below from this January’s Polar Plunge fundraiser in Islip.)
The nonprofit group was created after the Mogil family’s son, Gavin, was born with a congenital heart ailment. Gavin’s Got Heart helps subsidize medical bills, travel expenses associated with hospitalizations and medical care, and offset losses of wages for caregivers and parents.
“Having experienced what it’s like to have a child with a heart condition, it was important to us to give back to help families in similar situations,” Nicole Mogil, the group’s president, said of the hefty donation.
Southside’s BEAT program teaches local high school students all about the heart, such as how it best functions and how to keep it healthy. This is accomplished through lectures from Southside Hospital physicians as well as free screenings, including body mass index (BMI), blood pressure, cholesterol, electrocardiography (EKG) and blood glucose (a1c).
The new program has been working with students for the last six months. It’s led by Dr. Barry Goldberg, the director of pediatric cardiology at Southside Hospital.
As of this January, Gavin’s Got Heart had already directed over $110,000 toward these goals, according to the video report.
For more information about the BEAT program at Southside, call 631-539-5400.
