Take Steps to Stop SADS

One Step at a Time

This year, the SADS Foundation is reintroducing the Flat Bob Awareness Adventure Campaign as part of the 25th Anniversary Take Steps to Stop SADS Celebration. 

Flat Bob Instructions: Cut out Flat Bob. Take Flat Bob out on the town. Take pictures of Flat Bob next to your gym's AED, at the grocery store, at the soccer field-anywhere people might need a little SADS awareness. Share your photos on social media with the hashtag #FlatBob or email your photos to FlatBob@sads.org. Follow Flat Bob's SADS Awareness Adventure on our website: StopSADS.org/FlatBob

Order Flat Bob and start spreading SADS awareness:



Flat Bob was originated by Bob DeVries in memory of his wife Shawn Marie who passed away unexpectedly. Bob DeVries spent an entire baseball season traveling around the country visiting every major stadium. It would have stayed the story of a man who turned to baseball after his wife’s death, but a few months into his sports odyssey, DeVries got a call from the coroner in charge of his wife’s autopsy.

Shawn Marie appeared perfectly healthy when she died unexpectedly at the age of 35. However, the coroner’s report showed that the cause of her death was a condition called Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia (ARVD) - a condition they did not know she had.

After researching the condition, DeVries realized that his wife had presented some of the listed symptoms: dizziness, heart palpitations, fainting, and trouble sleeping. But they seemed so minor, things people manage in the course of everyday life.

When she fainted, they went to the emergency room. But it had been a hot day and the doctor assumed she was dehydrated. They did not check for a heart condition, they just hooked her up to an IV and then released her.

“I’m just a regular guy,” DeVries says. “You always think this is something that could happen to someone else. Then all of a sudden, I became someone else. I’m a lot more invested now.”

View Past Photos

• Flat Bob around the world
• Flat Bob Assignment #1
• SADS Safe Schools and Flat Bob!
• Flat Bob at the Keith L. Young Memorial 5-K