Thanks to a gift from the Westbrook Masonic Lodge, the Westbrook School department has four new defibrillators.

At a March 28 school committee meeting, members of the lodge presented the machines to Westbrook School Superintendent Stan Sawyer. The defibrillators were purchased with a $6,000 donation from the lodge.

The machines, known as automated external defibrillators, can be used by anyone, including people with no medical training, to aid someone suffering sudden cardiac arrest.

The defibrillators, which operate on the same principle as the larger ones used in hospitals, are used to restart a patient’s heart with an electric shock.

The donation brings the total number of defibrillators in the school system to six. Sawyer said the department’s goal is to have one in every elementary school and two at the high school and Wescott Junior High School.

School Committee Chairwoman Colleen Hilton said the committee and the school department were grateful to the lodge for its members’ donation.

“That’s an extremely generous gift,” she said.

(Defib3) The Saccarappa Masonic Lodge presents defibrillators to Westbrook schools last week. From the left are Todd Sampson, Westbrook School Department athletic director; Tracey Carrier, athletic trainer; Stan Sawyer, superintendent; Erin Murphy, high school student; and Masonic members Bill Murphy, junior warden; Bob Pallang, senior warden; Mike Henderson, master; Adam Bilodeau, junior deacon; and Bruce Henderson, past master. Jon Marston, senior deacon, is not pictured.