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When Beulah Porter made her will in 1985, she made a very important decision
A decision that may affect you or someone you love. She determined that her assets would be left to
Marshall Foundation. Mrs. Porter left a very large gift upon her death in 1990, and specified the resources be
restricted for cancer or cardiac projects. Beulah was married twice, one husband died from cancer, the other
from a cardiac arrest. And in her final days, she wanted to find a way to honor both of these dear ones.
So in accordance with her wishes, Marshall Foundation established a permanent endowment with her gift.
Earnings from this endowment were directed to benefit cancer and
cardiac patients. A grassroots fundraising campaign, entitled Straight to the Heart®, will raise $50,000 to purchase
and place Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) in the Placerville and surrounding rural area communities. Bruce Dickson, president of the Marshall Foundation
for Community Health, announced a grant to the Straight to
the Heart® Campaign from the Beulah Porter Endowment has been made. The Foundation’s challenge grant will match contributions from
businesses and individuals, dollar for dollar, up to a total of $25,000. Dickson noted that the Foundation enthusiastically supports this
community-based effort to place AEDs and feels confident the Beulah Porter Grant will encourage participation from members of the community. Every year approximately 350,000 people in the U.S. collapse due to sudden cardiac arrest and most
of them die as a result. The only way to stop sudden cardiac arrest is by defibrillation; the delivery of an electrical current to a person’s
heart that restores the heart’s normal rhythm. An AED, which is a portable device smaller than a laptop computer and weighing only seven
pounds, automatically analyzes a cardiac arrest victim’s heart rhythm and makes a decision whether to defibrillate the patient. Hal Barker, El Dorado County Sheriff, is looking forward to implementing the project, “With this type of equipment and proper training, law enforcement
officers will save lives he said. In fact, Hal believes in the project so much that he personally made the first gift to
the campaign. El Dorado Hills resident Katherine Anastasi, CPA is spearheading the fundraising campaign.
“Seconds are the between life and death with sudden cardiac arrest. The Straight To The Heart® project is our community’s
opportunity to increase access to defibrillation and the chances of saving
lives" said Anastasi.
The following organizations are partnering to implement the project: El Dorado
County Sheriff’s Department, The Placerville Police Department, Marshall
Medical, El Dorado County Local Disaster Council, El Dorado County Fire
Department, and
Marshall Foundation for Community Health. The Foundation’s executive director Karen Good stated, “The American Heart
Association estimates that 20,000 or more deaths could be prevented each
year if AEDs were more widely available to first-line responders, such as
police, sheriff’s officers and fire department personnel. The plan is to
have AEDs placed in patrol cars in the City of Placerville and in
sheriff’s units around El Dorado County as well as other public
locations.” Law enforcement officers are often the first responders
on the scene of a cardiac arrest. The goal is to have the AEDs placed and
training for users completed within one year from the start of the fund
raising project. This project, which focuses on Placerville and surrounding rural areas, is the
second phase of a larger project that began in Folsom. The ultimate goal of the entire project is to be the first in
California to place AEDs throughout the entire county. Sudden cardiac arrest, the leading killer of people between the ages of 45 and
65, often strikes without warning. “That’s why having AEDs in the hands of first line responders is critical in our ability to initiate care
for an individual who is experiencing a cardiac arrest,” said Captain Dan O’Leary, El Dorado Co. Fire Department. 100% of the funds raised through this project will be directed toward the
purchase of AEDs and to pay for associated equipment, accreditation and
training related to the placement of these units. We think Beulah would have been pleased to know her final gift
would make a difference today in the lives of sudden cardiac arrest victim. A gift that will,
most importantly, save lives. For more information about AEDs or sudden cardiac arrest, visit these websites: Public Access Defibrillation League (PADL) at
www.padl.org For more information on this vital project, call
Marshall Foundation at 530-642-9984 |
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Marshall
Foundation for Community Health . P.O. Box 1996, Placerville, CA 95667 (530)642-9984 |
