By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews
ROCHESTER —The Fulton County Health Department has distributed 26 pieces of safety equipment to four area school corporations.
That’s due to monies coming into the county via the Health First Indiana initiative.
Rochester Community Schools, Legacy Christian Academy, Caston School Corp. and Akron Elementary School all got LifeVacs to help choking victims and automated external defibrillators on Thursday, May 23.
Caston got eight AEDs and three LifeVacs. Rochester got five AEDs and four LifeVacs. Akron received two of each, and LCA got one of each.
Fulton County agreed to opt in to the Health First state funding, which the Indiana General Assembly made available through the Senate Enrolled Act 4 of 2023.
Health Department Public Health Nurse Denise Ostafin noted the county is receiving more money from the state than it would traditionally receive due to opting into the initiative.
“So normally we get about $50,000 (annually), this time we got (more than) $225,000,” she said.
“Next year, we’ll get $445,000 and some odd dollars,” said Ostafin.
The county spent more than $41,000 of the Health First funds for the equipment.
Ostafin said the county’s also using funding to pay for health programs Purdue Extension is doing in the county and helping cover swimming lessons for kids and pool passes and pay for Compassionate Health Center patients using Woodlawn Hospital’s services.
School staff expressed their gratitude for the equipment.
“Our lower (age) kids are obviously at higher risk of choking, so we’ll distribute accordingly to that, but having a day care in our building now definitely we’ll benefit having (the LifeVacs) available for us,” said Columbia Elementary School Principal Jason Snyder. “As far as the AEDs corporation-wide, we’ve already got AEDs in the corporation. However, just to make them more accessible, reaction times quicker, we’re very appreciative of the additional AEDs that are coming in because we do have spots that they will be helpful and covering areas.”
“We’re very excited and very appreciative of the health department’s willingness to include us,” he added.
Caston Superintendent Angie Miller noted the donation “will more than double the AEDs on site at Caston.”
She also thanked Fulton County Emergency Management Agency Director Gail Karas for helping facilitate the donations to the schools.
“We have our current (AED) in the high-trafficked most likely area to be used, but to be able to cover further out into the outside areas and shortening that response time is going to be a big benefit,” said Akron Principal Scott Sterk of the donation.
LCA volunteer physical education teacher Charlee Schwenk said she believed “it’s great that Legacy Christian Academy will be receiving one because we are pretty far out of town (at the Geneva Center) and there isn’t one at Geneva Center already.”
“They have a lot of people that come in and use that facility for weekends and camps and things and to have this in that building will help them a lot,” she added.
Karas said she was “appreciative of the collaboration” the county and schools did on the donation.
“It’s amazing to bring everybody together, and you can just see the enthusiasm in their faces because it’s hard to get this type of equipment and money’s limited,” she said.
