RBC Commits $36,000 to Help ACT Foundation Bring Defibrillator Program to Prince George School District Secondary Schools

Over 1,000 students to be empowered to save lives each year!

Prince George, BC, June 21, 2012

Today, 32 teachers from School District #57 (Prince George) will be trained to empower their students with Automated External Defibrillator (AED) skills as an enhancement to the ACT High School CPR Program. This training, to be held at Prince George Secondary School, will result in more than 1,000 students trained annually by their teachers to use these lifesaving skills.

Thanks to a donation of $36,000 from the RBC Foundation, public secondary schools in School District #57 (Prince George) will each receive defibrillator training mannequins, training units, as well as an AED for inschool cardiac arrest emergencies. “At RBC we believe the health and wellness of local communities is of vital importance,” said Sean Kehler, VP Commercial Financial Services, RBC Prince George. “We are proud to be a long-time supporter of ACT Foundation and thrilled to be bringing CPR and AED training to Prince George high schools.”

Teachers from College Heights, DP Todd, Duchess Park, Kelly Road, Mackenzie, and Prince George Secondary Schools will participate in today’s workshop to be trained as instructors for their students. An additional eight (8) teachers from McBride and Valemount Secondary Schools will receive training during a second workshop to be held on Friday, June 22, 2012.

The ACT Foundation is the national charitable organization that is establishing CPR and defibrillator training programs in all Canadian high schools. To date, the ACT High School CPR Program has been established in 220 public standard secondary schools throughout British Columbia and approximately 235,000 students have already been empowered to save lives with CPR.

The ACT Foundation is working with the Emergency and Health Services Commission to enhance the CPR program with defibrillator training and AEDs for public secondary schools throughout British Columbia. ACT’s health partners who are committed to bringing the AED program to these schools, and to all high schools across Canada, are AstraZeneca Canada, Pfizer Canada, and Sanofi.

Today’s teacher training is being provided by British Columbia Ambulance Service paramedics and CPR instructors Laine Smith, Patti Thompson, and Steve Dalla Lana, who are volunteering their time to teach the
workshop. With eight in 10 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occurring at home, empowering youth with CPR training as part of their high school education will help increase citizen CPR response rates over the long term. Moreover, early
CPR, combined with early defibrillation can increase survival rates for cardiac arrest victims by up to 75%, according to the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
“We are thrilled with RBC’s support for this program,” said Sandra Clarke, the ACT Foundation’s Executive Director. “With their support, we can enhance the CPR program in Prince George school district public secondary schools with the addition of the defibrillator component. These are lifesaving skills that students will be able to bring to their current and future families and communities.”

To date, the ACT Foundation has set up the ACT High School CPR Program in more than 1,600 high schools nation-wide, empowering more than 1.8 million youth to save lives.

Program Numbers in School District #57 (Prince George)

This partnership between the ACT Foundation and RBC will allow the eight (8) public secondary schools in School District #57 (Prince George) to receive:
6 Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) [2 of the schools already own AEDs];
24 AED training units;
24 AED training mannequins;
40 teachers trained as CPR and AED instructors for their students; and
Over 1,000 students will learn CPR and AED skills each year.

About the ACT Foundation

The ACT Foundation is the national charitable organization that is establishing the CPR and AED program in all Canadian high schools. The program is built on ACT’s award-winning community-based model of partnerships and support, whereby ACT finds local partners who donate the mannequins, AED training units, and AED unitsthat schools need to set up the program. Secondary school teachers then teach CPR and how to use a defibrillator to their students as a regular part of the curriculum, reaching all youth prior to graduation. ACT’s health partners who are committed to bringing the program to British Columbia and to all high schools across Canada are AstraZeneca Canada, Pfizer Canada, and Sanofi.