Thank you all for your support and donations throughout the month of October in the honor of Matthew’s 19th Heavenly Birthday. The Matthew Mangine Jr. Foundation truly appreciates your commitment to ensuring that our young athletes have the proper medical equipment at games and practices. With your assistance, MMJF will continue to grow as a foundation and expand upon the mission to promote awareness, education, and medical safety measures of all cardiac related episodes for competitive youth and high school sports.
As October comes to an end, MMJF would like to take a minute and talk about who Matthew was. Matthew was known by his family, friends and coaches for his smile, his laugh, and his compassion for others. Matthew was loved by all who knew him. Matthew’s simple acts of kindness and compassion continued even after he passed; at 16 years old he was a registered organ donor and helped 100 others.
To learn more about what it means to be a registered organ donor please visit Donate Life’s website. One organ, eye and tissue donor can save and heal more than 75 lives. To register or to check your registration status please click here.
We would also like to tell you about two innovative companies that have developed new medical and safety equipment that will provide better care for athletes. On August 24, 2022 an article from The Baltimore Sun was released about a color-changing mouthguard. This mouthguard, named the ThermoPact MouthShield, designed by dentist, Dr. George Garbis will not only reduce the impact of collisions but with its color changing technology could prevent potential heat-related injuries. Dr. Garbis designed a mouthpiece that absorbs 20% to 50% more impact than the traditional boil-and-bit guards, and it changes color when an athlete’s oral temperature reaches 102 degrees. Exertional heatstroke occurs when the core body temperature exceeds 105 degrees, so when athletes are wearing the ThermoPact Mouthshield it will be a warning sign to coaches, trainers, teammates, and other onlookers of potential heat-related danger.
Avive is on a mission to make AEDs (Automated External Defibrillators) more readily accessible through the use of its Avive Connect AED and REALConnect Platform. The AED is continuously communicating with the cloud-based platform, sharing data from daily self-tests and providing users with the device’s location and readiness state. Visit Avive’s website to learn more about its product and services.
Thank you again for your support, and we look forward to seeing everybody next year for The Matthew Mangine Jr. Foundation Golf Outing on June 11 and 12, 2023.