Auburn School District No. 408
915 4th Street Northeast, Auburn, WA  98002

9/9/05

NEWS RELEASE
Fundraiser Will Save Lives

The public is being invited to a compelling fundraising event, The Heart of Auburn Schools, that will save lives by placing Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) in local schools. This inaugural fundraising event will be held on Saturday, October 15 at 6:30 p.m. at the Truitt Building, 102 West Main, Auburn, 98001. Longhorn Barbecue will cater the event; a no-host bar will be available. Tickets are $25 a person. All proceeds will go toward purchasing AEDs for all schools and buildings in Auburn School District. An AED costs approximately $1,400.

The evening will include stories from heart attack survivors. Every year in the U.S., 220,000 people suffer sudden cardiac arrest –7,000 of them are students. Out of the total number, only 5% or 11,000 survive. Fatal arrhythmia (irregular beating of a heart) can only be reversed with early electrical shock delivered by an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED). The ability to successfully convert this certain death to “a save” drops off 7 to 10% every minute a shock is delayed.

The Heart of Auburn Schools committee, comprised of local physicians and community members, is leading a campaign (which includes the fundraising event) to place an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) within “two to three minutes of every student” and person on school district property. To achieve this goal, a total of 54 AEDs needed to be purchased. Since the beginning of the committee’s campaign, eleven AEDs have been ordered for schools. The committee is dedicated to educating the community about the need for AEDs and to equip every building in the Auburn School District with an AED.

For more information or to buy tickets or become a table captain (for a table of eight), contact Daryl Thompson at (253) 931-4713 or dthompson@auburn.wednet.edu.