Galesburg High School and the Genesis Foundation are hosting a “Red Out” for tomorrow’s triple dual wrestling meet between Limestone and Geneseo to recognize the memory of the late John Chapman.
John was a former Silver Streak wrestler and coach who died of sudden cardiac arrest while running in the Quad-City Bix in 2011. He had an undiagnosed heart blockage.
Since her son’s death, Rosemary Chapman has turned her hobby of knitting into an effort to support education and early diagnosis of heart disease.
“What can we do to make something positive come out of this and I designed a sock called Johnny’s Sock, a Heart Full of Love. It’s got three patterns on it. One, the first round, is all circles and every third circle is a solid knitted circle and it represents one in three people have heart disease. ”
The second pattern is two complete hearts, with a third broken heart between them to represent the 22,000 people who die to heart disease every day.
The third pattern is an EKG band that shows a beating heart, which is not enough to determine if your heart is healthy. Rosemary says they’ve raised $25,000 from selling Johnny’s Socks.
In addition to his memory, the Red Out will serve as an opportunity to encourage people to get free blood pressure screenings and learn information on hands-only CPR.
Rosemary is encouraging people to come out and support the high school wrestling team and get their heart checked with a free blood pressure screening being provided by the Genesis Foundation.
“I urge people to come out, it’s free. Plus you’re doing something great, you’re supporting the wrestling team. This is the cardiac nurses from Genesis. They’re taking their time to drive to Galesburg and do the free clinic.”
She says that the selling of the sock kits go towards the Genesis Foundation, and have raised $50,000 in various ways over the last four and a half to five years.
