Las Vegas, NV – January 20th, 2017 – Colliers and four other commercial brokerage firms in the Valley faced off in the annual Broker Bowl flag football tournament. Each team/company has a buy-in and the winning team gets to choose a charity to donate the funds to. Colliers’ team took home the championship this year and solicited the Links for Life Council to match the donations from the other firms. Their $2,000 donation to LV Sportz Foundation is meant to pay homage to the brokers that participated and to carry the message from the football tournament.
“Since we got a little athletic in our efforts to raise this money, we wanted to see it go to a cause that will help youth in our city to participate in their own sports activities” said Courtney Goffstein, Marketing Project Manager for Collier’s Intl. Las Vegas.
The donation helped pave the way for the LV Sportz Foundation’s Game-Saver Free Youth Sports Physical & Heart Screening event.
The free screening event was held on Saturday, January 28th, 2017, and provided local youth, ages 10 to 18, with FREE comprehensive pre-participation physical evaluations (PPEs/Sports Physicals) and youth athlete heart screenings utilizing 12 Lead EKG’s and 2D Limited Echocardiogram’s (courtesy of the American Institute of Medical Sonography).
On average, nearly one youth athlete under the age of 18 in the United States will die every 3 to 4 days from a heart-related condition. Nationally, this school year there have been nearly a dozen cases across the country where teens under the age of 18 have died from Sudden Cardiac Arrest. Locally, less than a year ago 14-year-old Isaiah Abrego passed away from Sudden Cardiac Arrest during a youth football game at Ed Fountain Park.
An overwhelming cause of these deaths includes Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy (HCM) which involves the thickening of the heart muscle, forcing the heart to work harder to pump blood. Other cardiac issues such as Long QT Syndrome and Wolff-Parkinson-White disease also put student-athletes at risk.
Most of these disorders can go unrecognized even though most causes of Sudden Cardiac Arrest in youth athletes can be found and treated before its too late, but the cost can quickly add up to hundreds if not thousands of dollars. Thorough, in-depth, free screenings like the events put on by LVSF can mean our local youth do not have to fit into that statistic.
The recent screening event is part of the foundation’s larger Game-Saver Program which also includes low-cost American Red Cross CPR/AED Certification for coaches/team moms, hands-only CPR training for student-athletes and an A.E.D. Loaner program as part of their Positive and Safe Sports (P.A.S.S.) Initiative.
The LV Sportz Foundation is a multi-faceted Nevada non-profit whose goal is to help Southern Nevada youth Get in the Game, Enjoy the Game and Stay in the Game! LVSF offers a variety of positive and safe sports programs and information; youth sports registration assistance; free youth sports clinics; youth sports awards; as well as news and announcements on every aspect of youth sports in the Southern Nevada area.