On Tuesday, the Standish Public Health & Safety Committee made a presentation to Bonny Eagle High School of an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED). The presentation was made at the beginning of the Standish Town Council meeting at.

The Committee receives funding by a grant from the Maine Dept. of Human Health’s Safe Communities Program. This year, our last year with grant funds, the Committee identified a need and decided to purchase an AED for Bonny Eagle High School. The AED was purchased from Zoll Medical Corporation at a cost of $1,500. This device is used to restart the hearts of people suffering cardiac arrest. Studies have shown that 50 percent of people with cardiac arrest and treated with an AED survive, 10 times the survival rate of 5 percent without the AED.

Presenting the AED on behalf of the town was Frank Holcomb, Chair of the Public Health & Safety Committee, and Captain Brent Libby of Standish Fire/EMS Department. Accepting for the high school was SAD 6 Superintendent Suzanne Lukas and SAD6 Business Manager Helen Vadais.

Past activities of the Committee have included adding a PeeWee rodeo to the Kiwanis Club Bike Rodeo for children 3 to 7, fitting them with helmets; installing Welcome to Standish banners on CMP poles for traffic calming; organizing a coalition of Sebago Lake Village residents to develop a vision for the village and to participate with Maine DOT on improvements to Route 114; organizing a group of Steep Falls residents to work on traffic and other safety improvements; holding child car seat inspections and providing car seats to residents; working with our local schools through SAD 6 on child safety issues and road rage; and holding a yearly Health and Safety Fair (currently planning our 4th fair).