General News
13 December, 2024
AED installed at Baringhup
Last week Jenny Johnson, president of the Maryborough Lions Club, presented a cheque to Loddon House Holiday Park for the purchase of an Automated External Defibrillator (AED).
The AED has been installed on the outside of the shop in an unlocked alarmed box to be used by the whole Baringhup community and guests of the park. Once registered with Ambulance Victoria, anyone who calls 000 will be told its location if it’s necessary.
Fiona Thomas, secretary of Loddon House Holiday Park, said the most important thing is that it is accessible by the whole community.
“It’s just so great we have something that can save lives and is accessible so easily,” she said.
Due to recovering from floods that damaged the holiday park two years ago purchasing an AED was out of the park’s budget without the Lions Club’s help.
“It’s actually been very emotional to be a part of that. I’ve always known the Lions Club was a great organisation but when you get touched by it personally it makes you appreciate them even more,” Ms Thomas said.
Former president of the Lions Club and current assistant secretary, Lorraine Parker, helped start the AED units and cabinets initiative around four years ago.
“I think it’s just imperative that we have these things available in the community,” she said.
Since then the club has provided thousands of dollars to businesses and organisations for AEDs and their cabinets to make them more accessible to the community, even when the businesses are closed.
Current president of the club, Ms Johnson, said this donation has helped address a need in the Baringhup community. The other two AEDs in the township are either distant or not available at all hours of the day.
“Close and handy is better than a long way away,” she said.
Recently, the Maryborough Lions Club spent thousands of dollars on an AED for the Maryborough Golf Club which was installed around a month ago on the outside wall.
Within only a few weeks the whole contents of the cabinet were stolen. As far as Gary Hutchinson, secretary of the local Lions Club, knows this is the first time this has happened to one of their donated AEDs.
“I just thought nobody would be so low in life to want to take it because it’s useless to people. There’s no value in the paddles. There’s no value in the battery. They can’t use the battery for anything else other than what it’s made for. I just can’t see what they’d do with the contents,” he said.
Mr Hutchinson hopes if anyone finds the stolen AED they will let the police or golf club know.
“In the meantime the golf club haven’t got a defibrillator and if somebody does have a heart attack down there — it defeats all purpose,” he said.