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Partly Cloudy Merrick Herald Person of the Year –– Jill Levine, saving lives, one AED at a time
On 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.
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 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-to-day 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.
