Bruce-Grey County Students to be Empowered to Save Lives

KINCARDINE, ON, 15/12/06

Today, the Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation, in partnership with the Government of Ontario and other key provincial and community partners, is launching the ACT High School CPR Program in Kincardine. The launch will take place at 11:00 a.m. at Kincardine District School, 885 River Lane. The Bluewater District School Board and the Bruce-Grey Catholic District School Board are embracing this award-winning program. Twelve-hundred (1,200) Grade 9 students from 13 high schools will be empowered to save lives every year thanks to this initiative and will take their life saving skills to their communities, which include: Chesley, Flesherton, Hanover, Kincardine, Lion’s Head, Meaford, Owen Sound, Port Elgin, Walkerton and Wiarton.

“The ACT Foundation provides our young people with important life saving skills and gives them the tools to live a Bruce-Grey healthy lifestyle,” says Duncan Hawthorne, President and CEO of Bruce Power, which has donated more than $18,000 and will act as the Bruce-Grey community partner for the Foundation. “What a positive impact; empowering our youth and giving them the confidence to react in an emergency, while at the same time creating a healthier and safer community. Bruce Power whole heartedly supports this initiative.”

Research indicates citizen CPR response can improve survival rate for victims of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest by almost fourfold. With eight in 10 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.

The Ontario government is a major partner in this initiative. “This program is an excellent way of preparing Ontario’s youth for emergencies both at home and in their communities,” said Huron-Bruce MPP Carol Mitchell. “I am proud to be part of a government that directly, and through The Ontario Trillium Foundation, funds programs like this that make real progress in bettering communities across Ontario.”

The ACT High School CPR Program is built on ACT’s award-winning community-based model of partnerships and support says Sandra Clarke, ACT Foundation Executive Director. “We are thrilled with the support of ACT’s partners. Without them, the Bruce-Grey County program would not be possible,” says Clarke.

Through the ACT Foundation’s public / private funding partnership model, 315 CPR training mannequins have been donated to the 13 Bruce-Grey County high schools and 27 physical education teachers have been trained as CPR Instructors. The community partner in Bruce-Grey is Bruce Power, and in addition to program funds from the Ontario government, the ACT Foundation has received provincial-level funding for the program from Hydro One, The Ontario Trillium Foundation and Shoppers Drug Mart.

The ACT Foundation’s goal in Ontario is to expand the CPR program to the remaining 40 per cent of high schools in the province that do not yet have the program. To help make this possible, ACT has secured a commitment of $650,000 from the Ontario government through its public / private funding partnership. To date, the ACT High School CPR Program is in over 400 Ontario high schools and about 600,000 Ontario students have been empowered to save lives.

About the ACT Foundation
The ACT Foundation is a national, award-winning, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting health and empowering Canadians to save lives. ACT is driving a national campaign to establish CPR as a mandatory program in every Canadian high school. ACT raises funds for CPR mannequins for schools and guides schools in program set up. The Foundation has already established the CPR program in over 900 high schools across Canada and over 900,000 youth have been trained to date. The Foundation and its core partners are winners of Imagine Canada’s “New Spirit of Community Partnership” Award. Core partners are companies in the research-based pharmaceutical industry: AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada, Pfizer Canada and sanofi-aventis. They provide ACT’s sustaining funding and are committed to the Foundation’s national goal of promoting health and empowering youth to save lives. For more information visit: www.actfoundation.ca.