The Orlando Chapter of Hadassah will present Saving Heartbeats at its luncheon meeting on Tuesday, Jan. 7, at Congregation Ohev Shalom at 11:30 a.m. The meeting is open to all who are interested in attending.

Saving Heartbeats is a CPR class aimed at teaching the basic life-saving techniques to women so they may understand what is needed to act in an emergency situation and hopefully encourage them to follow through and become certified in CPR. This is the second year that Hadassah has offered this program. Two days after last year’s class, Hadassah member Harriet Moldau was able to use her newly acquired knowledge to save a man’s life.

The class will be taught by Hadassah member and certified EMT and CPR instructor Marjorie Smith. She is a practicing attorney who served as a volunteer EMT with the South Orange Rescue Squad while living in New Jersey. Smith and her husband are currently members of the CERT team (Civilian Emergency Response Team) under the umbrella of the Seminole County Fire Department.

Orlando Hadassah offers Saving Heartbeats in conjunction with the chapter’s promotion of Hadassah’s Women’s Heart Health Program™ Every Beat Counts. This initiative educates women about risks, prevention and detection of heart disease, the No. 1 cause of death among women in the U.S. and worldwide. One in three women over the age of 20 has some form of cardiovascular disease and a woman is 10 times more likely to die of a heart attack than breast cancer. Cardiovascular disease kills more women than men in the U.S., and women present symptoms differently than men.

Hadassah has aligned with Sister to Sister to better promote Every Beat Counts throughout the U.S. and worldwide. Sister to Sister is the brainchild of Hadassah member and philanthropist Irene Pollin. She was motivated to start Sister to Sister in 2000 to get the word out to women—especially among working women who have no time to take care of themselves—that cardiac screenings are a key factor in heart disease prevention.

Sister to Sister and Every Beat Counts have been pioneers in preventing heart disease in women through the development of heart-health programs, educational materials and awareness campaigns that heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women.

For more information about the meeting, email nancyg357@yahoo.com or visit the following websites: http://www.Hadassah.org, http://www.sistertosister.