This post was written by me through an activation with HireInfluence on behalf of BIOLIFE4D. Although I received compensation for participating in the campaign, all thoughts and opinions are my own.
This Valentine’s Day, as you are preparing the perfect treats for your kids to take to school, filling out cards for grandparents, and making dinner reservations for the perfect romantic night out, stop and reflect on what love means for your family. Romantic love is exciting but what about a more meaningful and all encompassing love that you can share with everyone you meet? What about love that can be expressed in little, creative ways that can brighten a stranger’s day or make the world a better place for us all? Isn’t that love worthy of some of our attention during this season of love? Wouldn’t shift to a focus on love like that change our perspective and be a more valuable use of our energy. This Valentine’s Day, we want to challenge you to think about ways to model this kind of love for your children so we send our kids out into the world with a heart for others instead of a heart for just themselves. It is easier than you think to do this and we want to share with you how we are celebrating Valentine’s Day with Acts of Heart!
What are Acts of Heart?
We are not saying to ditch the greeting cards and boxes of candies. If you love to give your family and significant other little treats on Valentine’s Day, that’s very sweet and you should keep doing that. This year, start a new tradition in addition to what you normally like to do and engage in an “Act of Heart” with your family to send a little love out into our world that so badly needs it. An Act of Heart is just an act of kindness that expresses love and encouragement to others. It’s a good deed or random act of kindness.
Our Act of Heart for Valentine’s Day
It turns out that February isn’t just the month of Valentine’s Day. It is also American Heart Month. Heart disease kills more people than all cancers combined. 1/3 of women and 1/4 of men die from heart disease. There are over 600,000 people on the waiting list for a heart transplant yet only 5,000 transplants happen each year. Our hearts are incredible but too many are failing and most people don’t even realize how massive the problem is. In the spirit of that, we were invited to participate in the Acts of Heart challenge with an amazing company called BIOLIFE4D.
BIOLIFE4D is an incredible company that wants to make the miracle of receiving a new heart easier to achieve. Too many people die while waiting for a heart and BIOLIFE4D believes that with amazing new innovations and technology, they can create bioprinted hearts and save lives. The idea of creating a heart sounds like science fiction, but it is not. This can really happen. Knowing that the very long list of people waiting for a new heart could be cleared with bioprinted hearts one day seems unreal but trust me, it is so very real.
- The goal of BIOLIFE4D is to create a viable 3D printed human heart that can be transplanted.
- This world changing research is funded by private equity and they are currently accepting new investors to join them in the mission to make heart transplant available to everyone who needs a new heart.
- Investors in BioLife are part of groundbreaking research and development that will change the way we all live.
Kids born with heart defects, grandparents fighting to live with heart disease, parents who just want another day with their families could all live a longer, more fulfilling life when BIOLIFE4D’s mission is accomplished. Investors get to play a part in that amazing mission. In early February, BIOLIFE4D is starting an equity crowdfunding campaign so that the general public can join their mission to save millions of live. More information is on their website.
For our Act of Heart, we learned about a boy named Jack. Jack was born with a rare heart condition and after lots of surgeries and waiting, he received a new heart through organ donation. Jack is alive and thriving today because he has a new heart. My son and I talked about Jack. We talked about kids we know who deal with serious health problems. This is actually an issue close to our hearts and Elliott is well aware of the fact that not all kids are healthy and can live life the way he does. Elliott had brain surgery as a 1 year old. The issue with his brain was healed from one surgery but he knows not all kids have that same outcome. He’s gone with me to donate toys to our local children’s hospital and he’s helped me grocery shop and fix meals for families with kids with special medical needs. Participating in the Acts of Heart with BIOLIFE4D is a perfect match for us.
Elliott made a card to send to a child currently staying in Texas Children’s Hospital. We don’t know anyone staying there but that is not the point. The point was to send a little love out into the world. We won’t ever know who got the card that Elliott made but we really hope it makes someone smile. For his card, Elliott picked out some sports stickers out of his sticker book. He carefully arranged them and then on the card in his best five year old handwriting he wrote “You Are Brave.” We folded up the card and mailed it to Texas and we hope our friends will take a few minutes and do the same.
Passing it On
We would love nothing more than for our readers to look more into the work of BIOLIFE4D and how you can invest in their mission if you feel lead to do so. For Valentine’s Day and American Heart month, we are challenging all our readers to engage in an Act of Heart to teach your family about sending out love into the world and to raise awareness for the problem of heart diseases.
Take a picture or video of you and your kids during your Act of Heart and share it with us on social media by tagging Daily Mom and using #BL4DActsofHeart. We are also specifically passing the challenge on to Thrifty Momma’s Tips and can’t wait to see her #BL4DActs of Heart.
To learn more about BIOLIFE4D’s mission to build hearts and save lives, check out this incredible video.
Build A Heart Save A Life – BIOLIFE4D from BIOIFE4D on Vimeo.
Share the love! This February you and your kids can make the world a little brighter with Acts of Heart.
Looking for other ways to use your time more positively? Check out 20 Tips for a Positive Relationship with Social Media.
Photo Credits: Kristen Lee Creative
