Marcus Owens

President, Daniel E. Rumph II Foundation

by Jared Goyette

In 2005, 21-year-old Danny Rumph died of a heart attack during a pickup basketball game at the Mallery Playground in Mt. Airy. His uncle, Marcus Owens, then established a foundation in Rumph's name to raise money for the city to install defibrillators, or AEDs, in all of its 128 recreation centers. Though he says the city promised to back his efforts — the foundation covers the $3,070 for each heart-restarting tool — the Street administration recently announced it preferred a pilot program that inexplicably covers just a trio of facilities.

City Paper: Did the announcement of the pilot program catch you by surprise?

Marcus Owens: The city had told us that they were going to provide us with a priority list of rec centers where we could first install the AEDs. We were under the assumption that we would start with the larger rec centers, and then deal with the smaller ones later on down the line. But we never talked about a pilot program because we don't want to just do three. We want to install as many as possible.

CP: Did the city provide any explanation for the change of plans?

MO: No. What they told us in the beginning was that every rec center didn't need to be a priority, so they wanted to prioritize those rec centers that should get it immediately, but in no way did we discuss that this was a pilot program or that three was the limit. I have no idea why they changed plans, as they never discussed it with us. None of the information was ever communicated to us before it appeared in the Daily News. ... They still haven't communicated with us.

CP: What's your ultimate goal?

MO: After we have defibrillators installed in all our rec centers across the city, we want to offer a program in which we train young folks from the age of 16 on up on AED and CPR certification. We feel that if we can teach some of these kids how to save a life, maybe they'll think twice about taking one.