Defibrillators provided by Rotary Satellite Club for Stratford

Amelia Lumanglas, clinical services manager at Elizabeth R Lifecare and Brigid Bright, facility manager, receive the AED from Daniel Stieller, Rotary Satellite Club of Stratford chairperson and Ally Cook-Coles, a member of the Rotary Satellite Club.

The Rotary Satellite Club of Stratford may only be a year old, but it has already made its mark on the community.

This month, three Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) were purchased by the group to be placed in Stratford.

Chairperson Daniel Stieller says over the year members have sizzled plenty of sausages, sold thousands of raffle tickets, hosted a quiz night and given their time and skills at a wide range of community events as part of their fundraising mission.

"When we started the group we wanted to do something for our community.

"We came up with the idea of fundraising to purchase the three AEDs as they are something which anyone could need at some time. While Stratford does already have some AEDs in place, only one of them is available 24/7, so we wanted to purchase some which could be placed in other locations that would also be easily and readily available to anyone in the community, regardless of time or day"

Daniel says once they decided on the project, it wasn't hard to work out where they should be placed.

"The three rest homes in Stratford all have staff there 24/7, meaning access wouldn't be a problem. When we looked at the geographical location of the three rest homes we felt they did serve our purpose well as they are spread out, meaning an AED is close to you wherever you are in the town."

The group then began fundraising, and Daniel says they were thrilled to have managed to raise $6882.75, enough to purchase three AEDs before the group held its first year anniversary celebration.

We had also successfully applied for $1072.45 from the June Gray, Chenery and Lois Dalley Trust, which meant we could purchase all three AEDs at this time.

As well as paying for the purchase of the lifesaving devices, Daniel says the Satellite Club has also committed to paying for the cost of replacement of the first set of pads on each device as well.

On Monday Daniel visited Elizabeth R Lifecare with the AED to be installed in the rest home's foyer.

"It is available for anyone to use. People don't need any particular skills as the machine talks to you and tells you what to do as you go," he says.

Brigid Bright, facility manager at Elizabeth R Lifecare, says she is really impressed with the fundraising done by the Rotary Satellite Club and is delighted the facility can host one of the AEDs purchased for the community to use.

She says the group participated in a fundraising day held at the facility earlier this month, and they were pleased to have been able to support them in reaching their fundraising goal.

With their first fundraising project officially a success in under a year, Daniel says members of the group are now looking at what their next project should be.

"This time we are asking the community what it wants from us, and we are asking people to give us suggestions on what our next project to help the community can involve."

Daniel says they will be asking for suggestions through the group's Facebook page, and he encourages people to like the page so they can be part of the conversation.

If you have an idea for a fundraising project the group could consider, or would like to find out more about what the group does and how you can get involved, email them at rotarystratford@gmail.com