Dad Club London is frustrated the Thames Valley District School hasn’t installed AEDs at local schools, more than a year after the non-profit group raised money to do just that.
“We’re dads with kids, jobs, and lives. We were able to raise the money in 61 days,” said co-founder Jeremy McCall, who wonders why he’s heard from some schools that they haven’t received their potentially life-saving yet.
TVDSB spokesperson Richard Hoffman told 980 CFPL there are only nine defibrillators left to be installed, and that they’ll be installed by the end of Monday. One of the remaining AEDs will go to one of London’s 12 public secondary schools, the other eight going to elementary schools.
It was last summer that Dad Club London launched an ambitious goal of raising $24,500 to get the life-saving machines installed at every secondary school in London by the fall.
McCall said they went above and beyond their goal and managed to raise the money for AEDs at every secondary school and 21 elementary schools too.
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Last spring, McCall said they followed up with the Thames Valley District School Board and were told there was a manufacturing delay but that some AEDs would become available in March and April and they’d be installed “as soon as possible.”
But McCall is confused as to why there’s been a manufacturing delay, considering the support they received from manufacturing companies during the campaign.
We were offered all kinds of deals, people said ‘we have enough units on hand, we’ll give you guys a free unit for a certain number of units you buy.”
“Based on the capacity of the school board, and the usage outside of school hours, the number they came up with was over 12 months there could be upwards of two people experiencing cardiac arrest in a Thames Valley school either during school or after school hours.
When the campaign was announced last year, only three of the city’s TVDSB secondary schools, Laurier, Clarke Road, and Banting, had an AED machine. Nine of TVDSB’s total 27 secondary schools were equipped with AEDs.
In contrast, all elementary and secondary schools under the London District Catholic School Board have an AED.
Other district school boards including Avon Maitland, Lambton-Kent, and Huron-Perth have the devices in all of their schools.
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