Olivia’s Heart Organization began in 2014 to help raise awareness regarding sudden cardiac arrest in young children.

The organization has provided many events as well as free heart screenings that have occurred twice a year in Kern County since 2015.

In 2016 they provided 50 heart screenings for McFarland High School students. One of those students, Alyssa Diaz, discovered that she had a heart problem.

“If it weren’t for Olivia’s Heart Project, my daughter would have died young,” her father Danny Diaz said.

Alyssa was in track and cross-country in McFarland High School, and after her open-heart surgery she was able to continue running at Cal State Bakersfield.