Life-saving donation for Rotary club AED project

A generous donation to the Rotary Club of Strathalbyn’s Automated External Defibrillator (AED) project is helping to equip and connect communities with the life-saving technology.

Through the CMV Group Staff Foundation – an initiative that allows employees to donate a portion of their salary which is distributed to registered charities – the Langhorne Creek farms division recently made a financial contribution to Rotary Club of Strathalbyn’s AED project.

The foundation has helped CMV donate in excess of $2 million to more than 500 charities over the past 15 years.

“Our CMV Farms division was excited to be able to provide funding to Rotary Club of Strathalbyn in support of the AED project to enable (it) to purchase and install more AEDs in local area, including Langhorne Creek, Milang, Belvidere, Woodchester, and Ashbourne,” CMV Farms Langhorne Creek Property Manager, Phil Reilly, said.

“Living and working in the community, it is important to our staff to be able to give back to the region, and the installation of the AEDs is such an important project and of great benefit to the community.”

Sparked in early 2022 when husband and father-of-two Andrew Lee experienced heart failure, the project aims to raise awareness of sudden cardiac arrest, the importance of publicly accessible defibrillators and where they can be accessed in the community, with the help of Heart of the Nation.

CMV’s donation will go towards the purchase of two AEDs – one for Ashbourne and another for Langhorne Creek – which will be accessible to the public 24/7 in an emergency. 

It’s scoping and finding out where there already is an AED,  then putting them where there’s not (one)...

– Vivienne Goodenough

“It’s scoping and finding out where there already is an AED, then putting them where there’s not (one),” Rotary President-elect, Vivienne Goodenough, said.

“We’ve already got this one (at Belvidere), so we said Ashbourne doesn’t have one and at the other side of Langhorne Creek, we’ll probably put one in the Frank Potts Reserve because there’s nothing over that side either.

“It’s all about what the Staff Foundation is doing, then we’re helping to facilitate that by being the people who know about the project, and can help source and put (AEDs) where they’re most needed.

“It’s amazing; we just can’t thank them enough.”

Ms Goodenough hoped more businesses would be encouraged to buy an AED for their premises.