GREENVILLE – Sloopy’s and Treaty City Repair partnered to donate $1,000 to the Dylan Williams Forever an All-Star Foundation. Sloopy’s donated 10 percent of its daily sales on June 11th and June 25th to the foundation, with Treaty City Repair matching the total.
Eleven years ago this day, July 16, 2013, nine-year-old Dylan Williams, the son of Erick and Georgiana Williams, tragically lost his life when he suffered cardiac arrest after being struck by a line drive. CPR was not effective; a defibrillator not normally available in Little League parks at the time may have saved Dylan’s life.
Erick and Georgiana founded the Dylan Williams Forever and All-Star Foundation to give life-saving AEDs (automated external defibrillators) to youth sports organizations at no charge. A single AED costs upwards of $1,000.
The Foundation (501c3) was established to raise awareness of CPR training and the placement of life-saving AEDs at youth sports fields.
Matt Oswalt, a childhood friend of Erick Williams, was instrumental in bringing the idea of supporting the Foundation to the locally owned Greenville family businesses.
Mike and Michelle Weaver, owners of Sloopy’s and Art, and Michelle McRill, owner of Treaty City Repair, immediately stepped up to provide much-needed support for the Foundation’s mission of providing life-saving AEDs.
“We’re part of the community here,” said Mike Weaver. “We both had kids go through the sports system. Being here in the community, we’re a mom-and-pop shop, Treaty City Repair is too so we wanted to do something for the community and give back to the kids in the communities. Art and Michelle, and Treaty City have been a good partner for us, and they wanted to do this. We’re more than happy to help them out. Hopefully, more things to come – bigger and better.”
“Mike and Michelle reached out, and they talked about making a donation, and we love to be a part of the community,” said Art McRill. “This is an awesome thing to give back. We have kids in sports, so it definitely means a lot to help out where we can.”
“It is special, especially for businesses outside our local area supporting us, it means a lot,” Georgiana Williams stated. “Greenville has won several AEDs, so we are pleased to give to the community. They have always supported us, and we can’t say enough how much we appreciate Greenville.”
The Foundation just completed the 11th Annual Dylan Williams Memorial Baseball Tournament, with proceeds each year going to the purchase of AEDs for the winning tournament teams. Greenville received two more AEDs.
The Dylan Williams Forever and All-Star Foundation’s mission is to help increase awareness and provide support for life-saving efforts. On July 17, 2013, during 8U All-Star baseball practice, Dylan was struck in the neck area by a baseball and went into immediate cardiac arrest. There were no AEDs close by. Had there been, the tragic accident may have had a different result.
Nearly three million kids play baseball and softball each year. Yet, due to cost, many youth leagues or sports parks cannot be equipped with an AED. The Foundation’s hope is to help prevent this from happening at an event or practice. You have only 3-5 minutes – AEDs can and do save lives.
Erick and Georgina continue their free AED mission but note that raising much-needed funds to purchase AEDs becomes more difficult.
“We’re over 200 AEDs, four states, Indiana, Ohio, South Carolina, and Virginia,” said Erick Williams. “We get a lot of requests, but they are super expensive for our foundation. It takes us a while to raise the funds, so something like this being offered to us – they probably don’t realize how much it helps us. Our biggest fundraiser is the tournament, and our numbers have dropped tremendously.”
“When you consider you give away nine thousand dollars worth of AEDs, you have to bring in teams, and we’re struggling right now with the teams,” Erick concluded.
