Meet the Babbitt Family

The John Taylor Babbitt Foundation was started in 2007 by JoAnne and Dave Babbitt after they lost their 16-year-old son John to Sudden Cardiac Death.

Moving back to New Jersey in 1997 from a job transfer that had brought them to England, JoAnne and Dave moved to Chatham with their two young sons, John, who would start 3rd grade, and his younger brother, Andrew, who would start first grade, at St. Patrick School. After the boys graduated from St. Pats, they attended The Pingry School in Basking Ridge. Involved with town sports such as travel baseball, football and soccer, they also returned to their alma mater to play basketball on Sundays through the parish’s youth ministry program. It was on one of those Sundays that JoAnne got the call to come down to the gym. Dave was already there watching the game. “It’s every parent’s worst nightmare,” recalls JoAnne. “In a minute your life changes—just like that.”

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