Fairfield University is generally regarded as an exceptionally safe campus. Not only is the university safe in the generic sense, but it’s also heart safe.
Dave Babbitt, who graduated from Fairfield in 1979, spoke to the importance of heart safety and discussed his and his wife’s reasoning for creating the John Taylor Babbitt Foundation, in honor of their son, who passed away at age 16 in 2006. The foundation’s 20th anniversary is tomorrow, Feb. 26.
He credits his time at Fairfield with providing him with much of his strength, and says that the university was, and has continued to be, immensely supportive of his family and the foundation. “After [he passed], they reached out…they just really made a big difference in my life.”
John passed away from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, or HCM, a common genetic heart condition, which causes the left ventricular wall to abnormally thicken and stiffen, restricting blood flow. It affects roughly 1 in 500 people, often causing no symptoms, but can lead to sudden cardiac death, particularly in young athletes.
“Within five months, five other boys passed away. Every time it happened [it felt like] it was happening to us over and over again, and we [said], ‘We can’t live our lives like this,’” Babbitt expressed. Thus, the John Taylor Babbitt Foundation was born.
He claimed that his friends and family had an urge to help and energy that needed to be channeled somewhere. They wanted to be able to prevent tragedies from occurring for other families, while protecting their own. While getting their younger son, Andrew, screened for heart conditions, they met with doctors who were experts in sudden cardiac arrest.
When asked how they could raise awareness about these conditions, the doctors had a unified response: “Get AEDs out in places of public assembly. You don’t have to be a doctor [or] a nurse, but if you get these out, you’re going to save lives.”
While the Babbitts were up to the task, they knew that others may not be. “Everybody was afraid of them and of the liability,” Babbitt said. “[They] could be sued if they used them and they didn’t have the certification.” To quell this fear, he said, they would need to get the Good Samaritan Law passed in New Jersey, their home state, which protects bystanders from civil liability when providing voluntary aid to others during medical emergencies.
The bill was signed into law by Governor Chris Christie in May 2012. The JTB Foundation was “instrumental in that.” JoAnne and a group of students from high schools in their area travelled to Trenton, NJ, to plead their case, and they were successful, making New Jersey the 44th state to pass the law.
The foundation also sponsored the CPR/AED in Schools Bill, requiring all New Jersey high school students to know how to give CPR and to use an AED. Their commitment to heart safety has led to donations of around 850 AEDs and to the training of over 8,000 individuals on how to properly use them.
In what would have been John Babbitt’s freshman year of college, students who had come from the town of Chatham and the Pingry School in New Jersey (where John grew up and attended school) matriculated at Fairfield and started a Heart Club. The Babbitts and other members of the foundation came to campus during Alumni and Family Weekend each year and set up a table. “We would bring an AED, and we would give a tour of the campus to parents who [wanted to know] where the AEDs were located,” said Babbitt.
However, the club lost momentum about 10 years ago. According to Babbitt, “[The club needs] a faculty member or someone in administration, or a student group, who’s saying, ‘This is important.’” He also mentioned his and other alumni’s thoughts on the importance of AED training for RAs. “One girl contacted me about two years ago; she’s since graduated, but she wanted [the training] to happen during the two weeks before school starts. It never happened, but I [feel like] we could do initiatives like that.”
To further his point, he said, “During the basketball games during Heart Month (February), we could do a five-minute presentation of CPR. We’re not trying to raise money, we’re trying to raise awareness.”
In March of 2025, Fairfield University Student Association (FUSA) organized and hosted a polar plunge to raise money to support heart health at Fairfield. They raised nearly $3,500 to put towards the purchase of additional AEDs on-campus. Currently, as presented on the LiveSafe app, there are approximately 30 AEDs. However, two of the most-used academic buildings on campus, Donnarumma Hall and Canisius Hall, don’t have any. Thus, the need for the initiatives Mr. Babbitt proposed is reinforced.
One of the foundation’s board members is Mike Papale, a survivor of sudden cardiac arrest and the president of the foundation In a Heartbeat. He is also the basketball coach at Fairfield Prep. “He had his sudden cardiac arrest the same year that John did…and he’s very active in our foundation,” said Babbitt.
When it comes to celebrating Heart Month, the foundation spares no expense. Babbitt was eager to share, saying, “We are so busy! We went down to Philadelphia for National Youth Heart Screening Day, where they screen kids from ages 12 to 22 for [underlying heart abnormalities]. We [also] taught CPR [lessons] while kids were waiting for their EKGs.”
In addition, the Pingry School has a Heart Club, and at their recent basketball game, all who were present wore red. They also had a bake sale, raising money to buy an AED for a school in a less affluent area. “We’re just out there making sure that people are aware of what they can do to save a life,” he said.
A major facet of the work that the Babbitts do is the ability to be a part of something bigger than themselves. As members of the Smart Heart Sports Coalition, they are able to do that. It was formed on March 27, 2023, following Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin’s on-field collapse from sudden cardiac arrest earlier that year. The JTB Foundation is joined by other major organizations, such as the NFL, the NBA, the NHL and the American Red Cross.
They’ve been part of the coalition for about two years, and through their membership, they are able to truly see just how much they’ve improved New Jersey’s heart safety. JoAnne Babbitt spoke to that point, saying, “Being part of the [coalition], we started doing the investigative work. ‘How do we go about making sure all schools have AEDs [in all states]?’ ‘[Do they] have cardiac emergency plans?’ [And] of those [schools], there’s only a certain percentage of the faculty and staff that are trained.”
When looking at those three criteria, Babbitt said that at the time they joined the coalition, New Jersey was only one of seven states that had all three criteria embedded in their law. Now, however, as shown on the map on the Smart Heart Sports Coalition website, 29 states have adopted all three policies.
Sudden cardiac arrest is one of three emergencies where “…a layperson can save a life,” with the other two being Stop the Bleed and opioid overdose. When discussing how to encourage people to move past their fear and help those in need, Mrs. Babbitt said, “To get people to feel confident, they’ll never feel comfortable. If you talk to any EMT or paramedic in that situation, they never feel comfortable. But, [you need to] feel confident that [you] can do something and [you] need to act [immediately], you can’t wait for the ambulance to arrive.”
Read more about the JTB Foundation here: https://jtbfoundation.org/
Read more about Mike Papale and In a Heartbeat here: https://inaheartbeat.org/
