WPHF Grants Provide Emergency Protection for Winter Park

The Winter Park Health Foundation (WPHF), in hopes of boosting emergency protection in schools and on the road, has approved grants totaling $41,000 to benefit children attending local schools and residents served by Winter Park Fire and Rescue.

Orange County Public Schools received $16,000 of the grant money to cover the cost of purchasing an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) for each of these 10 schools: Aloma, Brookshire, Dommerich, Killarney, Audubon Park, Cheney, Hungerford and Lake Sybelia elementary schools, and for Glenridge and Maitland Middle schools.

These schools are part of the Winter Park Consortium which includes Winter Park High and its elementary and middle feeder schools. The WPHF provides funds for a broad range of physical and mental health services in these schools.

An AED is a portable device used to restore normal heart rhythm to patients in cardiac arrest.

Winter Park Fire and Rescue has received a $25,000 grant from WPHF to purchase two Auto Pulse devices which provide automatic, life-saving CPR. Jim White, Chief of the City of Winter Park Fire Rescue Department, said the equipment improves “the survivability of those patients found in cardiac arrest” by performing mechanical CPR compressions. The Auto Pulse Devices will be place on Fire and Rescue Response vehicles.

Ultimately, Chief White hopes to raise money from the city and community to be able to put the devices on all response vehicles in Winter Park.

Winter Park Health Foundation is a private, not-for-profit organization supporting programs that improve the health of youth, older adults and the underserved in communities in Orange County, FL.  The Foundation also conducts research and provides education on health issues to encourage policies and practices that create healthier communities.  For more information on the Foundation, go to www.wphf.org