GENEVA — Bits of Easter grass cling to Linette Derminer’s living room carpet, a sure sign that her grandchildren, nieces and nephews enjoyed their baskets this year.

Derminer’s holidays are filled with people and joy but are also hollow in the absence of her son Ken, who died of sudden cardiac arrest in 2000 while at football practice. Forever 17 years old in the family’s hearts and memories, Ken’s legacy is his mother’s work saving children from heart defects.

“The weird thing is that the more things change in my life, the more they stay the same,” Derminer said. “As much as I have grown and healed since the day Ken died, life is still the same. I would give anything to go back to the day before that day and take him to the doctor and know about his heart. I live to save other parents from that feeling.”

Since that hot summer day — long before anyone thought to have a portable automated external defibrillator (AED) on school grounds — Derminer has been a woman on a mission: She has been out to save the lives of children like her son.

To honor her son’s memory, Derminer and the volunteers of the KEN Heart Foundation donate portable AEDs to schools and organizations, hoping to raise awareness and prevent sudden cardiac arrest from occurring among young people, including athletes. To date, the foundation has donated 20 defibrillators to local schools and agencies. Derminer also founded the Parent Heart Watch, a national association of parents and physicians working to raise awareness of cardiac conditions in children.

Now it is time for Derminer to get a little love for all the hearts she has helped to save.

Derminer is a finalist in the Cleveland Woman of the Year contest, sponsored by Macy’s Department Stores and Chevrolet. Derminer is in the top 10 of 280 nominees, and the winner will be decided by online votes. Each person can vote for the Cleveland Woman of the Year once a day until March 31. Derminer has been nominated three times, once by her husband Mark Derminer, her daughter Rebecca Black and her sister-in-law Lisa Bruckman. Votes can be cast at www.clevelandwoy.com.

The Cleveland Woman of the Year wins a $5,000 Macy’s shopping spree, and her charity is given a hefty cash boost by Chevrolet.

“They aren’t saying how much money the charity wins, but it all goes by that online vote,” Derminer said.

Derminer said she would share the fun of the shopping spree with her grandchildren and nieces and nephews, but her main concern is the prize money for her two heart-conscious charities.

“My goal is, and has always been, to start a program that makes heart screenings economical for children in northeast Ohio,” Derminer said. “We have worked to find the money, but it has been hard. This prize money would go a long way towards making that goal a reality.”

Derminer said while Ken isn’t here to open Easter eggs and help clean up that pesky grass, her heart holds tight to his memory and now, to his legacy.

“When Ken died, the doctors told me more children die of lightning strikes than heart attacks. They told me that they wouldn’t see another case like Ken’s in 10 years,” Derminer said. “That’s just not true. Kids need to be screened; they need to be checked. I think about all those kids out there who have the same heart defect as Ken, and I know they are in danger. I know I have to do this to save those kids.”