Despite widespread awareness that cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) saves lives, only 15 to 30 percent of cardiac arrest victims receive this crucial intervention. And for every minute without CPR, the survival rate for cardiac arrest falls by 7 to 10 percent. Nationally, 166,200 out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest deaths occur every year — a statistic that could be greatly reduced by giving people the knowledge and tools to help. As we approach the holiday season, we are excited to launch the “Heart Safe San Diego County” campaign aimed at increasing the number of San Diegans capable of providing bystander CPR. This unique community partnership between the American Heart Association, San Diego Project Heart Beat and Supervisor Pam Slater-Price hopes to improve cardiac outcomes throughout San Diego County by increasing the availability and training of bystander CPR. On Dec. 15, we began by reaching out to 650 9th-grade students at Westview High School in Supervisorial District 3, who received the American Heart Association’s “CPR Anytime” training program in their health/physical education class. All training sessions are being led by paramedics and/or emergency medical technicians from a local EMS agency. These CPR-trained students, who we call “Holiday Heroes,” will be encouraged to take their kits home to train family and friends in bystander CPR. For every one student who takes home their CPR kits, it is estimated that they will train 2.5 more people — significantly expanding the reach of our program. All “CPR Anytime” kits include DVDs with information in English, Spanish and closed-captioning. The impact of “CPR Anytime” training in San Diego will be evaluated by the Community Program Assessment Tool (COMPASS), a database developed by the American Heart Association National Emergency Cardiovascular Care (ECC) Department. COMPASS will measure the efficacy of the “CPR Anytime” program, including the number of individuals directly and indirectly trained. Through the COMPASS evaluation, we will be able to report our results to the County of San Diego and affiliated partners annually. There will be no cost to the school districts. Funding for this life-saving campaign was provided by the County of San Diego’s Community Projects Grant program at Slater-Price’s behest. Additional support from private donors, corporations, or other sources would allow us to expand the campaign – and train more “holiday heroes.” This holiday season, learning to save a life could be the greatest gift of all. For more information, call (858) 410-3850, or visit www.americanheart.org. — This guest commentary was submitted by San Diego County District 3 Supervisor Pam Slater-Price, Dr. James Dunford, board president of the American Heart Association – San Diego Division, and Maureen O’Connor of San Diego Project Heart Beat.