automated external defibrillators at youth ball fields, but also raise funds to purchase the AEDs, which cost $1,500 each. And so Forever 9: The Robbie Levine Foundation was born. The organization is celebrating its sixth anniversary. Jill Levine, who has a degree in psychology from the University of Michigan and a master’s in social work from Boston University, now runs the foundation’s day-today operations. “The foundation really is like a full-time job,” she said. “I don’t, but I could work on it all day, every day. And it’s good because what it does is what it was started for. “It was started to memorialize Robbie,” she continued. “People hear about the Robbie Levine Foundation, and his name is spoken every day. And that makes us feel good. And the fact that lives have been saved because of this is, of course, an extra bonus.” For her courage in the face of unimaginable pain, and for her works on behalf of the youth not only in her hometown but across Long Island and beyond, the Merrick Herald has named Levine its 2011 Person of the Year. In the spring of 2006, only months after the Robbie Levine Foundation was founded, Jill Levine, with help from her husband, undertook a major project: Robbie’s Run, a 5K run/walk through the streets around Levy-Lakeside Elementary, where Robbie was an outstanding student. Jill said she hoped 300 people would attend. Instead, more than 750 turned out for the event, which began at Cammans Pond, on Lindenmere Drive, headed south, and looped through residential neighborhoods before returning to Levy-Lakeside. Robbie’s Run has now become a highly anticipated annual tradition in the Merricks, with more than 2,000 runners and walkers taking part annually. Each year the run raises $50,000 for the Robbie Levine Foundation. The Levines didn’t stop their fundraising with the run, though. For the past four years, they have hosted a Dealing with Hearts Gala, which annually raises $40,000. The fundraising has allowed the Robbie Levine Foundation to quickly expand, and provide AEDs not only locally, but in upstate Binghamton and as far afield as Kutztown, Pa., and even Israel and South Africa. “What we wanted was people to not say, ‘What is an AED?’” said Jill. “We wanted people to say, ‘When my kid gets on this field, where is the AED?’ And if the AED isn’t there, and they look at you like you’re crazy, that’s not OK.” Jill grew up in Michigan, where she graduated from Huron High School. She met Craig on a Caribbean cruise in 1991, while she was a student at Boston University, and they married in 1994. Jill moved with Craig to Brooklyn, where he was completing his residency in oral sur-
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OF THE YEAR Merrick
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YEAR IN REVIEW
Courtesy Scott Lipsky
Kennedy High School graduate Scott Lipsky made sports history when he won the mixed doubles title at the French Open. Page 9
e n i v e L l Jil
Saving lives, one AED at a time
By SCOTT BRINTON and DAVID WEINGRAD sbrinton@liherald.com or dweingrad@liherald.com
O
n Sept. 27, 2005, Jill and Craig Levine faced the unthinkable. Their 9-year-old son Robbie was rounding the bases during a Merrick Little League practice at Levy-Lakeside Elementary School in Merrick when he suddenly collapsed at home plate. He stopped breathing, and had no pulse.
Courtesy Paul DeMaria
Two major storms swamped the Merricks in August, causing widespread damage and flooding many parts of the community, including the Meadowbrook Parkway. Page 11
Craig, an oral surgeon trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, gave his son CPR for five long, terrifying minutes until a paramedic arrived with a defibrillator and administered electric-shock treatment. But Robbie never woke up. The Levines, long active in the Levy-Lakeside PTA and in the Little League, were devastated by their son’s death. They could not sleep or eat for days. But charitable donations in Robbie’s name from the Levines’ many friends in the community poured in, and Jill and Craig channeled their grief — and those donations — into a nonprofit organization of their own creation that would not only raise awareness of the need for
See Jill Levine, page 4
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