For more than a year, AFT member Rachel Moyer has lugged a small yellow case through schools in the Hudson Valley, to the doors of Congress and to the statehouse in Harrisburg, Pa. It's an automatic external defibrillator (AED), a machine designed to administer lifesaving electrical shocks to sudden cardiac arrest victims--and it might have saved the life of her son, Gregory.

The 10th-grade honor student was a basketball player who collapsed and died 15 months ago during a varsity game played at a rural Pennsylvania high school, where the nearest hospital was more than 25 miles away. There's no telling whether quick access to an AED might have meant the difference between life and death for Gregory, his mother explains. That nagging question is part of the pain families face when they lose a loved one to sudden cardiac arrest. Rachel Moyer, a teacher and member of the Port Jervis (N.Y.) Teachers Association, has been working tirelessly to see that others might be spared. "We don't want another family to go through what we've gone through if it can be helped."

The family established the Gregory W. Moyer Foundation, dedicated to getting AEDs, and the training and education associated with the machines, into schools and other public facilities. The foundation already has raised more than $140,000 and donated almost 40 AEDs to a host of schools and other organizations. Moyer's local also has supported the effort by negotiating language requiring the district to train coaches and school nurses in the use of AEDs.

"Each time we donate an AED or see one purchased through his fund, it makes me feel that we have lit another candle in our son's memory," Moyer told New York Teacher.

Moyer also has lobbied successfully for a law in her home state, Pennsylvania, that provides two AEDs in each school district and helps schools purchase additional units at below-retail prices (AEDs sell for about $3,900 each). She also is playing a big role in lobbying for the Community Access to Emergency Defibrillation Act, now before Congress.

This bill builds on the Cardiac Survival Act of 2000, aimed at putting AEDs in all federal buildings. The law also extends Good Samaritan protections to AED users and the owners of devices in those states that do not currently have such protections. This is crucial, Moyers says, because some authorities have turned away gifts of AEDs for fear of legal liability or because some employees might feel they are being compelled to perform a lifesaving task in an emergency. "People should know that legally you don't have to use it on someone if you choose not to--even if you were trained."

For more information about the Gregory W. Moyer Foundation, visit www.MomsTeam.com or write to rmoyer@hotmail.com or The Gregory W. Moyer Defibrillator Fund, c/o Arthur I. Zulic, 819 Ann Street, Stroudsburg, PA 18360.

If you visit the Hoop Dreams Web site, you'll find it hard to believe that the scholarship program described there was started by just one teacher--Washington Teachers Union member Susie Kay--who believes that the "wonderful, bright, hopeful students" she meets just need a shot to succeed. In fact, her efforts have meant so much to the community that she was chosen an Olympic torchbearer when the flame for the 2002 games passed through Washington, D.C., in December.

Kay, who teaches American government at H.D. Woodson High School, started the Hoop Dreams Scholarship Fund in 1996 with a one-day basketball tournament that raised $3,000. Today, through a multitude of sources, Hoop Dreams (named after the inspirational film of 1979) is a yearlong program that raises scholarship money for high school students in financial need and helps them prepare for the journey to and through college.

When Kay began teaching at the high school in the Anacostia section of Washington, D.C., more than a decade ago, the Newport, R.I., native says she "was struck by how inspirational the kids were" and how similar their dreams were. They were frustrated, however, thanks to the need for greater resources, finances, information, guidance and support, she adds. "That's not to say that the people in their lives aren't extraordinary people," notes Kay. "It's just an overwhelming venture when students have so many needs beyond the classroom."

Today, Hoop Dreams pairs students with mentors and provides internships that afford the inner-city kids an opportunity to participate in Washington's business and political communities. The program also pays for a Princeton Review course to help students prepare for their SATs. "More than 600 scholarships to D.C. public high school students ranging from $1,000 to $10,000 have been awarded," says Kay, and $1.6 million has been raised since 1996. There currently are 75 students matched with 75 mentors, 40 students serving as interns, and 100 kids taking the Princeton Review course.

In addition to EDS (an information technology company), which was the founding sponsor and now contributes office space to Hoop Dreams, Kay has garnered wide support--from volunteers who create and maintain the Web site and help run the programs, to individual contributors and corporations like Coca-Cola and Daimler Chrysler.

All of the money that's raised goes to kids who need it. "There's no nest egg and no automatic renewal of sponsorships," says Kay, who says she'd like to figure out how to make the programs more sustainable while maintaining quality and staying true to their commitment.

The first scholarship recipients are now beginning to graduate from college, and some are returning home. Among them, Debbra Snow, who worked three jobs while attending Woodson, graduated with honors from Howard University and is now a teacher and Washington Teachers Union member at Woodson. She has been awarded the first Hoop Dreams graduate school scholarship, says Kay. "She worked harder than anyone I ever knew in my life," says Kay. Giving her assistance was a "no-brainer!"

Kay says she is also in awe of all her fellow D.C. public school teachers who "are completely committed ... and who work so hard every day."

Hoop Dreams sponsor Coca-Cola, an Olympics 2002 sponsor, recommended Kay to be one of the torchbearers. She describes her experience running through the heart of Anacostia as "awesome," and was later told that she "was the only torchbearer who had a completely uphill leg, which [was] very fitting for Hoop Dreams," Kay notes. Many of her students from Woodson joined her in support, running alongside and cheering her on. "I am just one person--far from someone in a vacuum," says Kay, "and fortunate to be surrounded by amazing, committed people."

For more information on Hoop Dreams, visit the Web site at www.hoopdreams.org or call 202/414-4774.