Automated Electronic Defibrillators (AED's) for all the schools!

On Wednesday, October 26, the Rotary Clubs of Ellensburg and the Community Foundation of Kittitas County presented the Ellensburg School District with a check for $4,500 to fund the purchase of three automated electronic defibrillators (AED’s) for Mt. Stuart, Valley View and Morgan schools. On Thursday, October 27, the Rotary Clubs and Community Foundation then presented the Dammon School District and Christian School each a check for $1,500 to fund the purchase of one AED apiece.  All of these schools do not currently have these life saving devices.

 

The AED’s, which cost approximately $1,500 each, are highly portable devices that allow anyone with a minimum of basic first aid training to administer a life saving heart-starting shock to an individual experiencing cardiac arrest due to a variety of reasons.

 

This initiative has been a Rotary project in many communities, and therefore, as their initial club project, the Downtown Rotary Club along with the other Rotary Clubs in Ellensburg and Cle Elum began raising funds to provide schools with at least one AED unit.  The Rotary Clubs applied for and were awarded a matching grant from Rotary International District #5060.  As the project progressed, the Community Foundation of Kittitas County established a partnership with the Rotary Clubs in the county to raise funds to provide all schools, public and private, with an AED unit. The Community Foundation grant has been supplemented with an additional grant the Foundation applied for and was awarded by the Law & Justice Council.

 

The Community Foundation’s CEO, Bob Crowe, summed up the effort as a Rotary initiative that developed into a widespread community effort that involved businesses such as Jerrol’s, US Bank and Central Valley Helicopters along with many individuals in the community.  “This shows what community partnerships can do to make our community a better and safer place to live.  The Rotary clubs through their projects have always been an important part of improving the quality of life in our community, and between their efforts and the Community Foundation’s, we were able to create a public, private and philanthropic partnership to reach our collective goal,” said Crowe.

 

Each public school district and private school in the county will have received funding for at least one AED unit for each school in their district by the time the Rotary AED project is scheduled to conclude in early 2017.