The Association of Black Cardiologists (ABC) is bringing its signature celebration of impact back to New York City this fall—spotlighting leaders and organizations working to make cardiovascular care more equitable, more accessible, and more effective. The 16th Annual Spirit of the Heart Awards Program & Fundraiser is set for Saturday, October 3, 2026 (6:00 p.m.–9:00 p.m.) at Cipriani Wall Street in Manhattan.

For ABC, the evening is more than a high-profile awards program. It’s a cornerstone fundraising event that helps power the organization’s year-round work—supporting medical student scholarships, fellowships, education, and programs designed to strengthen the pipeline of diverse clinicians and researchers while improving outcomes in communities that carry a disproportionate burden of heart disease.

A fundraising night with long-term stakes

ABC leaders say the Spirit of the Heart Awards is built around a simple idea: celebrating progress while investing in the people who will drive the next wave of change.

Event co-chair Icilma Fergus, MD—Director of the Cardiovascular Disparities Center at Mount Sinai Medical Center and Board Chair of ABC—framed the night as a forward-looking commitment.

“This gathering is about more than one evening of celebration; it is about investing in the future of cardiovascular health for years to come,” Fergus said in the announcement. She added that the support generated through the event helps expand opportunities for aspiring clinicians, researchers, and leaders whose work can transform care and improve lives nationwide.

Honorary Chairperson: Samin K. Sharma, MD

ABC announced Samin K. Sharma, MD as the event’s Honorary Chairperson. Sharma serves as Chief of Clinical Cardiology, Director of the Cardiovascular Clinical Institute, and the Anandi Lal Sharma Professor of Medicine at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai.

In the release, ABC highlighted Sharma’s international reputation in interventional cardiology and physician education, noting that he has trained cardiovascular specialists from around the world while advancing the field through research, mentorship, and patient care.

“I am honored to serve as Honorary Chairperson for this important event,” Sharma said. “The Spirit of the Heart Awards Program reflects the power of partnership, philanthropy, and leadership to advance cardiovascular health.”

A full weekend of impact, including policy

The awards program is part of a broader weekend of programming. On Friday, October 2, ABC will host its Annual Policy Pulse Summit at Venable LLP in New York City, convening leaders to discuss policy issues shaping the future of cardiovascular health.

What to expect at the Spirit of the Heart Awards

ABC is positioning the evening as both a celebration and a community gathering—bringing together leaders from healthcare, philanthropy, industry, and advocacy.

The event will be co-emceed by:

• Sandra Bookman, award-winning journalist and anchor of Eyewitness News on ABC7/WABC-TV New York
• Thomas Cunningham IV, President and Chief Content Officer of BrandCunningham

The program is expected to include:

• Presentation of the Spirit of the Heart Awards
• Recognition of medical student scholarship recipients
• Special guest appearances
• A live auction
• Musical entertainment

Event co-chair Barbara Hutchinson, MD, PhD, President of Chesapeake Cardiac Care, emphasized the role of sustained collaboration in moving the needle on heart health.

“The Spirit of the Heart Awards Program is a reminder that lasting progress in cardiovascular health is achieved through vision, partnership, and sustained commitment,” Hutchinson said.

How to attend, sponsor, or support

ABC is directing attendees and supporters to its event site for tickets, sponsorship opportunities, and donations:

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• Event info / tickets / sponsorship / donations: https://abcardioevents.org

About the Association of Black Cardiologists

Founded on the belief that “every heart counts,” the Association of Black Cardiologists works to promote prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease and to advance health equity by eliminating disparities. ABC’s membership is open to all, regardless of race, ethnicity, or vocation. The organization’s work spans education, advocacy, research, patient and community outreach, and leadership development.

• Organization website: https://abcardio.org

Source and media contact

• Press release source (PRNewswire): https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/association-of-black-cardiologists-to-celebrate-legacy-and-leadership-at-16th-annual-spirit-of-the-heart-awards-302206000.html

Media Contact (from the release):

• Akeia Blue, VP of Communications
• 419395@email4pr.com
• 240-321-9227

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Marie-Amelie George, Wake Forest University

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled on June 30, 2026, that West Virginia and Idaho did not violate the Constitution by preventing transgender students from joining female sports teams, and that states can restrict who participates on women’s and girls sports teams based on a student’s sex assigned at birth.

This ruling, focused squarely on transgender students participating on single-sex sports teams, does not resolve other major questions that are important to trans rights. These issues include what bathrooms transgender or nonbinary students can use at school, as well as whether transgender individuals can update their names and gender markers on identity documents.

The court folded two related cases that address sports team participation at the middle, high school and college levels – Little v. Hecox and West Virginia v. B.P.J. – into one single decision that resolved both. The justices ruled 6-3 on the cases.

This ruling backs 25 other states that, over the past few years, have passed new laws restricting transgender students from participating on female sports teams.

Twenty-one states also have some sort of restriction on transgender and nonbinary students using school bathrooms designated by sex.

As a legal scholar and expert on LGBTQ+ rights, I believe that based on the court’s reasoning, it is likely that the conservative majority on the court would uphold states’ right to restrict school bathroom use based on sex assigned at birth. However, this ruling leaves bigger questions regarding transgender students’ broader rights in school, at work and elsewhere unanswered.

A political flash point

There were estimated to be fewer than 10 transgender athletes who participated in collegiate athletics in 2024.

But the issue of transgender students participating on sports teams is a hot-button issue for the Trump administration and Republicans, who argue that transgender female students have a biological advantage in competitive sports over athletes assigned female at birth.

The issue is nuanced and depends on factors including the athletes’ age and whether they have undergone gender-affirming hormonal therapy.

Some recent research shows that transgender female athletes who have undergone gender affirming hormone therapy have a comparable level of strength to cisgender female athletes.

What the rulings covered

At issue in these two Supreme Court cases were what protections Title IX – which bars sex-based discrimination in education programs and activities that receive federal funding – as well as the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment gave transgender students.

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Little v. Hecox challenged Idaho’s 2020 law that allows only students whose sex was designated female at birth to participate on girls and women’s school sports team.

Lindsay Hecox, a transgender female student at Boise State University, alongside a cisgender student, filed a lawsuit against the state in 2020. Hecox, now 24, could not try out for the school’s track and cross country team because of the law. She instead ran at the club level.

In West Virginia v. B.P.J., a transgender middle school student athlete named Becky Pepper-Jackson similarly sued the state so she could continue participating in track and field. Pepper-Jackson won a state title in girls shot put in May 2026.

The state’s 2021 Save Women’s Sports Act requires public middle schools, high schools and colleges to designate all school athletic teams by biological sex.

Understanding Title IX and how it applies

The Supreme Court determined that states are permitted to restrict sports team participation under Title IX and its regulations, which explicitly permit schools to have separate male and female sports teams.

The opinion started by emphasizing there are “enduring” physical differences between males and females, and that if there were unified sports teams, females could be at a disadvantage.

“Separate sports teams for biological males and biological females are reasonable: Given the inherent physical differences between the sexes, allowing only biological females to play on women’s and girls’ teams can reduce the risk of physical injury and ensure fair competition,” the court ruled in its opinion on West Virginia v. B.P.J., authored by Justice Brett Kavanaugh. Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Amy Coney Barrett joined the ruling.

Pepper-Jackson argued that this part of Title IX did not have relevance to her case because she had taken puberty blockers and never gone through male puberty.

As a result, she argued, she did not have heightened levels of testosterone or other physical differences that could raise the concern of a competitive advantage over cis female students in sports. She also posed no physical safety concerns for her teammates.

The court’s majority rejected this argument, saying that the Title IX regulations did not speak to this issue. The court recognized that although the laws might produce unfair results for someone like Pepper-Jackson, this did not make the restrictions improper.

The court added that Pepper-Jackson and other students in her position need to take up their concerns with state legislatures.

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The court’s liberal wing – Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson – agreed with the conservative majority that the laws did not violate Title IX.

The role of the equal protection clause

The court also addressed the equal protection clause of the U.S. Constitution, which says that the government must apply its laws fairly and cannot treat people differently without a valid reason.

The court’s conservative majority ruled that the laws distinguished based on sex, and as a result they scrutinized the laws more carefully. However, the court concluded that the athletic restrictions nevertheless passed constitutional muster.

Here, too, the court’s majority cited the interests of safety and competitive fairness as important justifications for the laws.

The liberal justices disagreed with their colleagues’ analysis. In their view, the laws were too broad to satisfy the Constitution, because they banned transgender girls who had never experienced male puberty from female sports teams.

A side step

The decision is a narrow one. The court went to great lengths to emphasize that it was focused on sports, and that the court was not being asked about transgender people’s rights more broadly.

In the court’s telling, sports are unique because competition depends on the physiology and physical differences between those assigned male and female at birth. That is important, because there are few circumstances in which the physical differences between males and females continue to be relevant.

In the past, many occupations and schools were sex-segregated. Today, bathrooms, school sports teams, changing facilities, some college residence halls, juvenile detention centers and prisons are among the last places that remain segregated by sex.

Moreover, the court avoided ruling on the constitutional standard that should apply when transgender people are discriminated against. Under constitutional doctrine, courts will more closely scrutinize laws that discriminate against historically powerless minority groups, such as people of color and women.

One of the open questions in transgender rights litigation is whether transgender people qualify for that more searching review.

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This case did not resolve that issue.

The court’s narrow ruling on transgender athletes ultimately did not resolve other key issues for transgender rights, which the court will likely be asked to address at a later date.

Marie-Amelie George, Associate Professor of Law, Wake Forest University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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(Feature Impact) The joy of being a kid on summer vacation offers a time to explore with your friends, discover new things about the world and yourself and recharge for a few months before heading back to school in the fall. However, for millions of families, the end of the school year also marks the beginning of a stressful season filled with tough choices, as children can fall behind in the months away from the classroom.

The summer gap begins when the school doors close and many children lose access to the daily routines, educational support and dependable nutrition that help them thrive. For families already juggling tight budgets and demanding schedules, summer can quickly become a season of added pressure and stress.

Summer learning loss – or the decline in academic skills and learning during the school break – can have a lasting impact on academic outcomes. Studies show over the summer, students can forget 20-30% of what they learned during the school year. Without the right support, students often start the new school year playing catchup, which can cause them to fall further behind.

Summer can also intensify food insecurity. Of the more than 22 million kids who rely on free or reduced-priced school meals, many lose access to these vital programs over the summer. When those meals disappear, families must stretch already limited budgets to cover up to 10 additional meals a week per child. In fact, recent United Way Worldwide data from 211 – the free 24/7 helpline that connects people with local resources – identified food access as one of the most pressing needs facing millions of families nationwide.

These overlapping pressures fall especially hard on millions of working families living paycheck to paycheck, including ALICE (Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) households. They earn above the federal poverty level but still struggle to afford basic expenses like housing, medicine, food and transportation.

Addressing the summer gap requires a community-wide approach and solutions that meet hardworking families where they are. For example, United Way Community Schools are community-based hubs that bring together schools, social services agencies, volunteers and other community partners to provide students and families with essential support like tutoring, food access and health and wellness resources.

Families also need easy, practical, daily tips and local resources to make ends meet and help their kids stay on track.

Learning that Fits Your Day

For busy families, low- or no-cost learning moments that fit into packed schedules can make a real difference. Many communities and nonprofits offer dedicated programs to keep children active and learning during the summer, such as:

• Summer art classes, creative writing workshops and digital literacy tutoring at local libraries
• Free monthly book deliveries and reading challenges through Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library – a United Way partner – or book exchanges at Little Free Libraries in high-traffic areas
• Gardening classes, nature appreciation classes and swim lessons through local parks and recreation departments
• Free weekly youth workshops offered by many public museums, zoos and botanical gardens
• Free virtual museum field trips through institutions like the Smithsonian and NASA Glenn Research Center
• Free online courses in topics ranging from coding to art or language learning

Accessing Your Community’s Food Network

Families shouldn’t have to choose between nutritious food and other essentials. Help is available to ensure kids have the nutrition needed to thrive over the summer. While resources vary by community, examples include:

• Youth-serving organizations serving as open summer meal sites, offering free breakfast and lunch to kids and teens
• City parks departments offering daily meal stations
• School districts offering summer meal programs; food delivery may be an option
• Local places of worship hosting open-door meal programs or distributing weekend grocery bags for families

For those looking to make a difference this summer, consider lending a hand to help children and families. Volunteering is a rewarding way to give back to your community. Whether it’s mentoring, serving meals, reading with students or supporting local programs, even a small time investment can make a lasting impact. After all, when families thrive, communities thrive.

To learn more about childhood summer learning programs, food initiatives and ways to support your community, visit unitedway.org.

SOURCE:

United Way Worldwide

The Bridge is a section of the STM Daily News Blog meant for diversity, offering real news stories about bona fide community efforts to perpetuate a greater good. The purpose of The Bridge is to connect the divides that separate us, fostering understanding and empathy among different groups. By highlighting positive initiatives and inspirational actions, The Bridge aims to create a sense of unity and shared purpose. This section brings to light stories of individuals and organizations working tirelessly to promote inclusivity, equality, and mutual respect. Through these narratives, readers are encouraged to appreciate the richness of diverse perspectives and to participate actively in building stronger, more cohesive communities.

https://stmdailynews.com/the-bridge

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