Bothwell Foundation Presents Four AEDs at Heckart Community Center

Members of Wear Red for Women, a Bothwell Foundation committee, recently presented four automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to Sedalia Parks and Recreation for the Heckart Community Center.

An AED is a small, lightweight device that allows individuals and first responders to treat sudden cardiac arrest. The machine automatically analyzes the heart rhythm and when appropriate, it delivers an electrical shock to the heart to restore its normal rhythm.

According to research, the majority of sudden heart attack victims have good chances of survival under certain common conditions, including that the event is witnessed, the collapse occurs in a large public place, an AED is handy, and bystanders use CPR and the AED.

Funds to purchase the device were raised during the 2022 Wear Red for Women luncheon and auction. The committee’s goal is to have AEDs in every place people work, learn, play or pray in Sedalia and Pettis County. Since the inception of the luncheon event in 2020, 47 AEDs have been placed in or committed to various locations. The 2023 Wear Red for Women event is Feb. 24, 2023.

In the photo:

Front row, left to right: Amy Epple, Sedalia Parks and Recreation director; Lori Wightman, Bothwell Regional Health Center CEO and Wear Red committee co-chair; Susan Mergen, committee member

Second row, left to right: Robin Balke and Dee Dee Gilmore, committee members; Deidre Esquivel, Bothwell Board of Trustees chair; Tina Jennings, committee member; Lauren Thiel-Payne, Bothwell Foundation executive director; and Kara Sheeley, committee member

Back row, left to right: Courtney Fry, Sedalia Parks and Recreation recreation superintendent and Chase Stone and Sara Quinn, Heckart Community Center staff