Heart-Safe Community (2004 LGAA)

Village of Manlius (Winner)
County: Onondaga County
Population: Less than 5,000
Village Hall: (315) 682-9171

The purpose of the Heart Safe Initiative is to educate and train the Rhinebeck community about CPR and AED use. The program was the first community-wide effort in Dutchess County to address heart safety, and first to be recognized as doing so.

The Village of Rhinebeck acknowledged the statistic that more people die from Sudden Cardiac Arrest each year than from AIDS, Breast Cancer, Lung Cancer, and Stroke combined. Furthermore, since the Village had just experienced a fourteen month period in which two young athletes suffered sudden cardiac arrest, they felt it was necessary to increase public access and knowledge of AEDs in the community.

As a result of the Heart Safe Initiative, the Rhinebeck community and employers are now educated and empowered with the skills, training and resources to save lives. Residents of the Village of Rhinebeck now know they can take action to save lives and that there are AEDs in key locations, a powerful piece of knowledge to have in everyday life. The Village also gained positive press and extensive local and national media coverage regarding the "Heart Safe" initiative.

No value can be placed on human life. The Village of Rhinebeck felt that if just one person was saved as a result of this effort, then the program was worth it. To date, the Village knows of at least three people that have used the skills gained through the Heart Safe Initiative to save lives. Other municipalities can easily duplicate the Heart Safe Initiative by working as a group with the municipality, schools, Chamber of Commerce, emergency responders and the public in concert with the County Health Department and American Heart Association, in order to create a "heart-safe" community.