The American Heart Association (AHA) is hosting its 2026 Teen of Impact campaign, a nine-week long competition where nominees, like Solon High School junior Hend Egzait, raise awareness and funds for heart health research, advocacy and education in their community.
National Wear Red Day, an initiative under the American Heart Association meant to support women’s cardiovascular health, marked the beginning of the campaign on Feb. 6. The purpose of the campaign is to spread awareness for American Heart Month which places cardiovascular disease in the spotlight.
The Northeast Ohio Teen of Impact campaign is composed of eight nominees across the region, including Egzait. As a nominee, Egzait will work to advocate and fundraise for cardiovascular disease, where she aims to raise $15,000. But to Egzait, it’s more than just the money.
“[The campaign] is not about the fundraising–it helps a lot–but also it’s just acknowledging [cardiovascular disease] and making sure more people are aware about it,” Egzait said.
Egzait was able to secure a nomination for the Teen of Impact campaign with the help of current Solon High School senior and past nominee Abdur Rafay Husnain and AHA’s Senior Vice President of Development and Community Impact Katie Thom, who is also campaign counselor to Egzait. The campaign nominees create their own teams, ranging from 5 to over 30 people, where the members help spread awareness and raise funds for the nominee.
Currently, Husnain is on Egzait’s team. But just last year, Egzait was part of Husnain’s. As a team member, Egzait became inspired to become more involved with the American Heart Association’s initiative.
“…[Egzait] kind of hinted that she wanted to lead a campaign similar to [mine] next year,” Husnain said. “That’s how I was able to nominate her and recruit her…she could run her own campaign at Solon with her own perspective.”
Through Husnain’s nomination, Egzait was able to begin communicating with Katie Thom, her counselor for the campaign. With Thom’s help, they planned out a timeline of Egzait’s campaign.
“I sit down, and I do some goal setting and some planning for [Hend’s] campaign,” Thom said. “For nine weeks, we talk about outreach, network, building [her] team to be successful, delegating different jobs on a weekly basis throughout the campaign to see how progress is going…if she’s happy, [if] she needs additional resources.”
As of now, Egzait plans to do a bowl-a-thon event and a talk show with the help of doctors.
“I spoke with a couple of doctors at the Cleveland Clinic, and they are helping me spread awareness about [heart health],” Egzait said. “I’m planning on doing a talk show with them…and a bowl-a-thon…[Thom and I] were thinking about renting out a space and trying to raise money and possibly have doctors come in and speak.”
Husnain said he plays an important role as one of Egzait’s team members in helping her organize events as well.
“I’ve been able to reach out to local businesses by emailing them, phone calling their offices and leaving messages so that they can be a part of something bigger and advocate for heart disease in the community,” Husnain said. “I’ve been able to reach out to physicians in the community who would also like to support small campaigns, like Hend’s, and I reached out to our local mosque to set up a table during prayer times to reach more people there and to spread awareness.”
Their local mosque is the Chagrin Valley Islamic Center (CVIC), and the table will be set up during night prayers. Husnain said this time is when many community members are present, and they hope to engage a large number of people through the table.
“We plan to contact Katie to provide small giveaway items such as heart-shaped stress balls, pens, notepads, chapstick and other motivational goodies,” Husnain said. “I also asked if Hend could include Kit-Kats to match the heart health theme and make the table more engaging.”
The table will also include Hend’s official poster from AHA, where there will be a QR code that allows people to scan and donate.
However, beyond the planning, Egzait says she is excited for her campaign, especially because she is raising awareness for a matter important to her.
“I became a part of this initiative because I wanted to do something more than myself,” Egzait said. “I wanted to help other people, especially for things like heart awareness month and how important this is–It affects more people than you could know. It would be so amazing if I could just help make such [an] impact and be a part of [heart awareness].
“I have some family members that were affected by [heart disease], and when I heard different stories and spoke with cardiologists, I heard how much it affects people’s daily lives and how much it affects loved ones and people that you know you care about.”
In the United States, 121.5 million adults have cardiovascular disease, where heart disease is the leading cause of death. In Ohio, 11.1% of adults face cardiovascular disease. As Egzait sees the disease firsthand with her family, she said she is honored to be a nominee and wants to create an impact on her local community. She said she hopes people become more aware of heart disease and CPR because it can impact the lives of family and friends.
Thom said she wishes Egzait the same, especially because she is the only individual in the Solon community representing the campaign.
“There is a certain sense of pride when you’re the one representing your entire community,” Thom said. “It takes a village to help her to be successful, so the more folks [that] can help her through fundraising efforts, through sharing social media and supporting the messaging that she’s sending out on a weekly basis, [that] will really help her campaign.”
As a Teen of Impact nominee, Hend automatically receives a letter of recommendation from the American Heart Association for college, and as a winner of the competition, she would receive a $2,500 scholarship for college, according to Thom.
Thom said Egzait is an ideal candidate for the Teen of Impact campaign, as she is determined to spread awareness about heart disease and health.
“From the first time I met her, her smile is contagious, and her energy is infectious,” Thom said. “She just had that personality I noticed so well in this campaign, and she was determined to help others through the campaign…I’m just so proud of her.”
Egzait and her 21 team members are continuing their efforts of spreading awareness, and you can donate to Egzait here. The money will go towards research because “without research, there would be no way of helping and saving lives,” Egzait said.
“I just want to say that if you can get anything out of this campaign–I’m not even about the donating or the fundraising–it’s just if I could talk more about, or spread awareness, about heart health and cardiovascular disease, it would be great,” Egzait said. “[Heart disease] really does impact people’s lives, and I think any sort of acknowledgment or just talking about it would really help. Maybe do some research on your own and like look and see what you could do to help or learn more about it, like learning about CPR–that can really save a person’s life.”
