The Make Them Know Your Name Foundation is hosting a Pop Up in the Park event on Saturday afternoon, featuring a live performance with Marsha Ambrosius, food trucks, family activities and fireworks. The free event is from 3 to 10 p.m. at Voinovich Bicentennial Park at 800 E. 9th Street Pier in Cleveland.
Browns CB Denzel Ward and his family created the foundation in honor of his father, Paul Paul G. Ward Jr., who died unexpectedly in 2016 due to cardiac arrest while participating in a spin class.
The mission is to tackle the heart disease epidemic and the importance of living a heart-healthy lifestyle.
Nicole Ward, mother of Denzel and executive director of the foundation, appeared on Good Morning Cleveland- Saturday.
“We are focused on just making a positive impact when it comes to this epidemic… that's people dying suddenly from heart disease,” Ward said. “As we know, heart disease continues to be the number one killer in the United States.
The foundation provides CPR training, automated external defibrillator (AED) equipment and resources to the community.
“Our focus is to provide education, training and resources to as many people, organizations, individuals as possible to teach them how to do CPR,” Ward said. “And the importance of using the AED, because that's the difference between life and death when you're faced with an emergency.”
The event will feature demonstrations on how to perform CPR and use an AED.
“Hopefully, they'll come in one way, maybe not knowing the skill, and they'll leave here not only having a great, great time, but they'll have a skill that they can keep for a lifetime,” Ward said.
In addition to the training, visitors will be able to enjoy a variety of family-friendly activities.
“We’re going to have games for the kids. We're going to have food trucks. We’re going to have live performances… and then we're going to end the night with a fantastic fireworks show,” Ward said. “This is a way that we would like to, and Denzel would like to, give back to his hometown. It's a great way to kick off the season. And in addition to that, we're going to take this opportunity to educate the thousands of people that are expected to be here on the importance of heart health."
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