Russell's Steaks Partners With Cardiac Crusade to Expand AED Mapping Across Western New York

Russell Salvador with Greg and Julie Coon, co-founders of Cardiac Crusade, and Larry Coon, Cardiac Crusade Buffalo Lead.

Buffalo hospitality icon Russell Salvatore and Mark Jerge commit a landmark Title Sponsorship to map life-saving AEDs across WNY counties.

BUFFALO, NY, UNITED STATES, November 6, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- For generations of Western New Yorkers, walking into Russell’s Steaks, Chops & More in Williamsville has felt less like arriving at a restaurant and more like being welcomed into an institution built on genuine care. The owner, and legendary philanthropist, Russell J. Salvatore, has spent six decades redefining local hospitality, greeting patrons by name, ensuring celebrations are unforgettable, and quietly giving millions back to schools, hospitals, and public institutions across the region.

Now, Salvatore and managing partner Mark Jerge are channeling that legendary spirit of care into an urgent public health campaign: saving lives from sudden cardiac arrest. Through a landmark $25,000 Title Sponsorship contribution, Russell’s has joined forces with the national 501(c)(3) nonprofit Cardiac Crusade to spearhead the 2026 Western New York Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness and Community AED Mapping Initiative across Erie and Niagara counties.

For Western New York, the fight against sudden cardiac arrest carries deeply personal resonance. The entire sports world and community watched in shock during Monday Night Football when 24-year-old Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin collapsed on the field from sudden cardiac arrest. Hamlin is alive today—and remarkably back in uniform—because team trainers and first responders began immediate, high-quality CPR and deployed an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) on the turf within seconds. Hamlin’s miraculous recovery sparked an unprecedented national awakening to the power of rapid emergency response. Yet while NFL stadiums have world-class medical personnel and defibrillators standing yards away, everyday citizens collapsing in suburban dining rooms, office lobbies, gyms, and parking lots rarely experience that same luxury of immediate accessibility.

Nationwide, sudden cardiac arrest claims over 350,000 lives annually outside hospital settings, carrying an abysmal national survival rate below 10%. The issue, however, is rarely that AED technology is absent; it is that bystanders and 911 dispatchers simply do not know a device is hanging on a wall just 100 feet away.

That exact disparity is what gave birth to Cardiac Crusade. The nonprofit public charity was founded by Greg and Julie Coon after Julie suddenly collapsed from cardiac arrest. She survived because alert bystanders stepped in instantly with CPR and located an on-site AED before EMS crews arrived. Recognizing that surviving cardiac arrest should depend on prepared communities rather than sheer luck, the Coons launched Cardiac Crusade to map every AED in America into a free, centralized database for 911 emergency dispatch centers, while working toward direct, native integration into consumer navigation platforms such as Google Maps and Apple Maps.

"The statistics tell a compelling story," explained Julie Coon, Co-Founder and survivor. "Across the country, fewer than one in ten people survive a sudden cardiac arrest. But in places like San Diego where more than 2,600 AEDs are thoroughly mapped and integrated into the emergency dispatch network, survival rates leap to between 50% and 70%. If an AED shock is administered within the first two minutes, a victim's chance of survival reaches 80%. That is where Western New York needs to be, and that is why this partnership matters so much."

Cardiac Crusade’s grassroots volunteers have already registered over 12,000 AED locations nationwide. In Western New York alone, previous community mapping challenges led by local volunteers and schools, such as Orchard Park School District students, logged more than 1,200 devices across the region and around the world. Yet thousands of life-saving devices across commercial corridors, religious organizations, manufacturing hubs, and private offices remain hidden behind closed doors.

Russell’s $25,000 Title Sponsorship directly tackles this gap by powering widespread community mapping outreach, volunteer recruitment, educational materials, and a dedicated multi-platform holiday media flight across WGRZ-TV Channel 2 and WGRZ+ streaming in December.

The centerpiece of the campaign is a high-impact Public Service Announcement (PSA) produced by longtime commercial video partner Dan Monroe. Salvatore, long celebrated for his theatrical, charismatic TV spots, lends his unmistakable voice and presence to the cause. The PSAs combine Salvatore's trademark warmth and hospitality with a dead-serious educational message, walking viewers past the dining tables, host stand, and front desk, where a ZOLL AED is prominently mounted. Every spot concludes with a universal life-saving directive: "If someone collapses and is not breathing: Call 911, start CPR, get an AED."

"Taking care of people has always been my life’s work," Salvatore said. "For sixty years, people have walked through our doors to celebrate their most important moments -- anniversaries, birthdays, and milestones. But sudden cardiac arrest doesn't care about the occasion. It strikes without warning. Having an AED right here at our front desk means being ready to give someone a second chance at life. Working with Cardiac Crusade is about making sure every neighborhood, restaurant, and shop in Buffalo looks out for one another in the exact same way."

"Russell Salvatore represents the absolute best of Buffalo," said Greg Coon, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Cardiac Crusade. "Just as Western New York rallied around Damar Hamlin and showed the world the resilience of 'Bills Mafia,' Russell’s leadership ensures we turn that awareness into lasting, street-level infrastructure. His generosity empowers our team to train volunteers, locate unmapped defibrillators, and ensure that when someone calls 911 in Erie or Niagara County, dispatchers can guide a bystander directly to a life-saving device in seconds."

Western New York businesses, building owners, educators, and property managers who have an AED on their premises are urged to submit and verify their devices free of charge by visiting cardiaccrusade.org. Volunteer registration and community mapping tools are accessible directly on the portal.

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For those unfamiliar with the impact of Damar Hamlin's recovery, you can watch the video, which documents the sudden on-field medical emergency that sparked widespread regional awareness of rapid CPR and AED intervention.

Greg Coon
Cardiac Crusade
+1 214-207-5303
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Russell's Steak and Chop House Public Service Announcement with Cardiac Crusade