Saving The Day

Below is a story relayed to us by Kit Kay, a board member and coach at West Allis Lightning about a normal day turned extraordinary due to the actions of one of our Badger Region members - Lightning director Angie Hardwick.

I'm 100% confident she would be too humble to tell any of you at Badger Region herself but it is an awesome story that occurred during our recent volleyball travels.

We have had a whirlwind summer. From June 14-18 we were in California with the five Boys teams (14-18) at the SCVA tournament. We were home for a few days and then from June 26-July 2 we were in Phoenix with 3 Girls teams (12, 15, and 16). 

As I'm sure you're aware - these events are all very time consuming for Angie and she is a MASTER at planning out the details on travel, car rentals, hotels, food, on top of all the tournament entry, etc.   We consider her a superhero for how fantastically these events are planned and how fantastically smooth they run but all of us close to Angie know that they run smooth because of the literally hundreds of hours she puts into the organization.

Well - while in Phoenix with the girls - Angie and I were at Sam's club doing team cooler shopping.  As we rounded a corner - Angie got this incredibly distressed look on her face and started to run.  At this point I had no idea what was happening.  

Angie had seen an older lady (in a shopping "scooter") appear to be struggling breathing.  She could tell from the way the woman was acting it was a very bad situation. Angie ran up to the lady and asked her "are you ok?" The woman shook her head "NO." Angie then asked "are you choking?"   The woman shook her head "YES." Angie then told the woman "I'm going to give you the Heimlich." She then went behind her and applied the Heimlich 3x.  After the 3rd - the woman coughed up whatever she was choking on. Angie saved this woman's life!!!

I watched to awe  - literally with my jaw dropped. The woman and her husband (also in a scooter) thanked Angie over and over. After the chaos cleared - Angie proceeded to grab the cart and walk off to finish the shopping - like it was no big deal.

I have reminded Angie repeatedly what a hero she was and IS  - not only to us at Lightning but certainly to this unknown woman at Sam's club in Phoenix. And I've been telling this story to anyone who will listen.  

I'm not telling Angie I'm sending because she surely wouldn't want to self-promote but hey - isn't that what friends are for!!

Angie Hardwick with her son Dylan after the WAL Lightning B18 team won the USAV 18 Open National Championship

Angie at the BJNC in Dallas with three of her kids, who are all coaches!