On Friday the Community Health PADs Program held its first ribbon cutting, outside the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte’s Community Wellbeing Centre.
The ceremony is viewed as a first step in Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory becoming a SaveStation Heart Safe Community. This ribbon cutting was the first of many to come through the Community Health PADs Program.
This program, a partnership between the Mohawks of the Bay of Quinte and Push for Life – Education and Training Services, has a goal of installing Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) throughout Tyendinaga Mohawk Territory so that no matter where a cardiac incident or emergency takes place, people can reach the AED within a four minute drive. This number was strategically chosen to allow an AED to be put to use within those critical first 10 minutes. In the TMT community, this is especially important as ambulance response times to the territory are more than twice the provincial average at 15 minutes 52 seconds in 2022.
As TMT continues community engagement and seeking support for the success of this initiative, a critical component is education. During an emergency, they want community members to feel confident they know how to do fast, hard, proper CPR and use the AED. To work towards this, they are offering free CPR and AED training from the Mohawk Community Centre (1807 York Road). Upcoming sessions are:
- Tuesday, May 16 from 1 to 2:30 p.m.
- Tuesday, May 16 from 5 to 6:30 p.m.
- Monday, May 29 from to 6:30 p.m.
- Tuesday, June 6 from 5 to 6:30 p.m.
To register visit: pushforlife.ca/free-cpr-event. There are also different ways to get involved with the Community Health PADs Program:
- Sponsor as a business – pushforlife.ca/pad-sponsorship
- Dedicate a SaveStation in honour of a loved one – pushforlife.ca/dedicate-a- savestation
- Purchase a SaveStation – pushforlife.ca/buy-a-savestation
- Donate directly towards the purchase of a SaveStation – pushforlife.ca/product- page/sponsorship-by-donation
For more information on how to get involved and support the SaveStation Heart Safe Community initiative, contact Corin Vail at corin@pushforlife.ca or 613-824- 5002.