Darryl格里芬

Darryl格里芬 grew up in a large, tight-knit family in inner city Chicago. Aunts and uncles were like parents, cousins more like siblings, neighbors were friends. Darryl被爱包围着, but he also grew up watching many of those around him struggle with their health and suffer in silence. 在他的家庭和社区, 他们很少讨论健康或死亡, ，尽管这两者是密切相关的,他说. Multiple friends and family members dealt with diabetes and cardiovascular disease, but seemed to lack the medical access and resources to tackle their health problems and mindfully plan for the future. "When you're faced with that day-to-day struggle for survival," Darryl says of the often difficult conditions in his neighborhood, “很难有前瞻性思维."

但达瑞尔考虑的是未来, and soon he was the very first of his close group of cousins leaving their neighborhood and setting off to college. It was as a young freshman at Vanderbilt University that he attended a community service course, 由传奇篮球教练指导, 埃德•马丁. The inspiring course led to volunteer work at an on-campus school for underprivileged children. 我在芝加哥长大, 达瑞尔已经见识过自己的劣势, 但这次特别的经历让我大开眼界. "I thought I was doing bad, and then I see this," he explains. "I just thought, wow, I'm seeing someone who is more underserved than me. 我想成为影响变革的一份子. For kids like this, and for communities like this." And thus, a servant's heart was born and a legacy started taking shape.

大学毕业后, Darryl的职业生涯是从非营利组织开始的, drawn to organizations that raise health awareness and meet the needs of communities, 尤其是那些得不到充分服务的人. He joined the 美国心脏协会 as an Executive Director in 2013, just a year after the sudden loss of an uncle to cardiac arrest. At that time, he had no idea how much more personal his connection to the AHA would become.

在接下来的几年里, Darryl witnessed multiple younger cousins suffer strokes, and lost his grandfather and grandmother to a massive stroke and heart failure from complications with diabetes, 分别. Then two years ago another devastating blow came in the form of a frantic and noisy early-morning phone call where he deciphered through tears that his cousin had died from sudden cardiac arrest. 他亲爱的表弟JR, 谁更像我的兄弟, had just celebrated his 40th birthday weeks prior and now he was gone. 达瑞尔想谈谈这件事.

His heartbreak fueled a renewed passion for raising awareness about heart disease and stroke, particularly in communities of color that are disproportionately affected. He wanted people to start having the tough conversations about their health and what they would like to see happen upon their death. He realized he could help change the narrative that these conversations don't have to be uncomfortable and taboo, 他从自己的家庭开始. "I realized I could be an influence not just in word, but in deed -- literally." He let his family know of the gift to the AHA he had written into his will and encouraged them to consider the same.

"Being an example for my children and for my family is very important, 点燃他们心中的火焰, but also to recognize the organization that has been really critical to me in so many different ways. I'm having the conversation with my children because it's planting that seed of legacy and continued impact, the fact that you can do something very positive in life and in death."