The Philippides Project, which is all about heart, chose the symbol associated with Valentine’s Day to raise funds for its projects.

Night lights, in the form of a flashing red heart that attach to clothing or a belt as a safety measure, are being sold at seven businesses in Durango.

Proceeds will fund the mission of the Durango-based Philippides Project – the advancement of cardiopulmonary and cardiovascular performance in youngsters, elite athletes, senior citizens and people diagnosed with a heart, lung or vascular disease.

The price isn’t heart-wrenching – $5. The hearts are on sale through Tuesday and maybe beyond.

The participating businesses are: Performance Cardiology; the Durango Sports Club; Blossom of Durango florist shop; Guido’s Favorite Foods; Mountain Bike Specialists; the Durango Chamber of Commerce and Karyn Gabaldon Fine Arts.

The Philippides Project, three months shy of its second anniversary, took its name from a guy who was all heart – the Athenian herald Philippides who, according to the ancients, ran 300 miles in a week to announce a Greek victory over the Persians and then dropped dead.

“We’re a brand new nonprofit,” Andrea Mull, the president of Philippides, said Friday. “But we’re starting to give grants.”

Grants support research, education and testing to advance cardiovascular and cardiopulmonary performance, Mull said.

Mull is the wife of Dr. Bruce Andrea, a cardiologist who established the Durango Performance Center and Performance Cardiology.

Among the first grants is one to support testing being done by a Fort Lewis College student Rotem Ishai as a senior project, said Molly Hummel, an exercise physiologist at the Durango Performance Center.

Ishai tests athletes breathing air that is 50 percent oxygen – ambient air is 21 percent oxygen – to see if it lowers the accumulation of lactic acid, Hummel said.

When the buildup of lactic acid is more than an athlete can clear, fatigue sets in, Hummel said.

The Philippides Project plans to promote itself further afield, Mull said. The project will have information booths at sporting events and also could work with the U.S. Women’s Cycling Development Program, she said.

The nonprofit also is open to collaborating with other professionals with the same goals, Mull said.

daler@durangoherald.com