Rotary Club of Lancaster sponsors Heart Safe Accreditation for Lancaster-Fairfield Community Action Agency
LANCASTER – The Rotary Club of Lancaster, and Rotary District 6690, recently provided funding to sponsor the Heart Safe Accreditation program for the Lancaster-Fairfield Community Action Agency through Fairfield Medical Center (FMC).
The grant provided training for 25 employees (bringing the total trained agency employees to 77), as well as funding for 8 CPR training manikins that can be used for drills and ongoing training, and a testing AED, which allows the staff to train and practice using the AED without disturbing the life-saving equipment or draining the AED’s batteries. The agency plans to loan the training equipment and manikins out to other organizations and agencies looking to become Heart Safe Accredited.
“We are proud to become a Heart Safe Accredited organization thanks to the support of our local Rotary Club and Fairfield Medical Center,” said Clinton Davis, Executive Director, Lancaster-Fairfield Community Action Agency in a news release. “Our staff did an outstanding job engaging in the training – and we all feel more equipped to help each other and our clients in the event of an emergency situation.”
Heart Safe Accreditation was envisioned by FMC, first responders and community members who were inspired by people willing to step up and offer assistance in a cardiac emergency within a community setting. Statistics show that for every minute a victim is down (unresponsive and not breathing) and not being assisted, their chance of survival diminishes by 10%.
The goal of the Heart Safe Accreditation program is to better prepare and equip our community in cardiac care emergencies, within the initial environment, before the squad arrives. So far, 40 businesses, organizations and schools in the local community have earned the accreditation.
“We know that there have been incidents in our community where non-medical, local employees have stepped up to save lives by responding to sudden cardiac incidents,” said Matt Wideman, Lancaster Rotary Past President. “Sponsoring this training and the corresponding equipment is one way that our club puts the Rotary concept of ‘service above self’ into action, helping to save lives in our community.”
The Lancaster Rotary Club is comprised of approximately 140 business and community leaders and professionals who meet weekly for programs, networking, and friendship on Mondays at Noon. More information can be found at https://www.rotarycluboflancaster.org/
This article originally appeared on Lancaster Eagle-Gazette: Rotary Club of Lancaster sponsors Heart Safe Accreditation
