WESTFIELD – Susan Canning, director of the KEVS Foundation, announced the installation of an outdoor secure box containing an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) at the Municipal Playground and courts at 3 Greylock St.
The courts are actively used by residents for basketball, tennis, pickleball, a water park and playscape.
Canning said that Westfield Gas & Electric helped to sponsor the unit and also installed it.
The secure box contains an AED unit previously donated by the KEVS Foundation to the Park & Recreation Committee. Westfield Bank also sponsored the project.
The box is like a safe deposit box in a hotel room, Canning said. It has electricity which keeps the AED warm in the winter and cool in the summer, and is made out of indestructible metal which cannot be broken into.
She said for anybody in that area that goes down and needs CPR, someone may go to the box, call 911 and receive a code from the dispatcher to open it, and then grab the AED and bring it to the victim who is receiving CPR. The dispatcher will send first responders and also walk the person through how to use the AED.
“All of that will take place before the first responders get there,” Canning said.
Canning said the Municipal Park has been seeing a lot of activity, especially in the evening, with people playing basketball, tennis and pickleball. She said on any given night, they can have anywhere from 25 to 50 people there over three or four hours. She said the city has cleaned up the area and there is a lot more traffic.
“We’re in the middle of COVID and people want to get out and exercise. It’s nice to see people using the Municipal Park, but we also want it to be a safe environment,” she said.
Outdoor AED Unit signage at the Municipal Playground. (Photo submitted)
This is the second outdoor AED box that KEVS has sponsored, the first went to Quaboag Regional school district. The cost of the outdoor box is over $1,000, and KEVS presented it as a donation to the city in March. “I’d love to put some of these boxes in other locations where kids are at, and kids are playing,” Canning said.
This year though, the KEVS Foundation had to cancel its major fundraising event, the Kevin J. Major Memorial Hockey Tournament. Canning said that when she informed sponsors Westfield G&E and the Westfield Bank that the tournament was cancelled, both stayed on to continue to support the mission, and to give back to the community.
