Following my survival of SCA on April 2, 2004, my wife, Susie, and I felt there must be a reason that I became part of that 5% of people who "die" and live to tell about it.  After attending the Second SCA Survivor Summit in Washington, DC, and two Minnesota Survivors Conferences in the Twin Cities, we found many great people in the same situation----only they were doing something about it.

In 2005, we assisted our local school in applying for a grant from the Iowa Department of Health EMS Bureau to place AEDs in our school buildings.  With this grant and another grant from an area foundation, we were able to get three AEDs for our two school buildings.  Susie and I trained the school staff and the AEDs were put in place.  For the past several years, we have been teaching CPR/AED to students in Health Class.

One year ago--after the deaths of a 13-year-old student and a 30-year-old teacher at separate small Iowa schools, we decided to take on the task of raising money to put AEDs in all school buildings in our county and to re-program the AEDs in our school to the new AHA way of doing CPR and using the AED.  The schools are small---there are only four school districts with six buildings, including our school---so we only needed four more AEDs.  This proved to be a gigantic task.  Due to the small towns and few businesses, we were approaching the same people who are asked to contribute to activities of many local organizations each year.  With the help of many businesses, individuals, and local grants,  we have reached our goal.  The four AEDs for these other three school districts are being ordered now and will be in place by the start of school next fall (maybe even by the end of this school year!).

Here's hoping those AEDs hang on the walls and are never used!!!!!

Butch & Susie Gibbs
Humeston, Iowa