The Central Berks Lions Club made the Leesport community safer with donations of two Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) this spring.
An AED is a portable device that checks a person’s heart rhythm and, in cases of sudden cardiac arrest, can send an electric shock to the heart to try to restore a normal rhythm. Studies show that 95 percent of people with sudden cardiac arrest die within minutes if not treated. Rapid treatment with an AED can be lifesaving.
The Lions Club, located in Centerport and serving the Northern Berks area since 1948, answered a request from Friends of the Schuylkill Valley Community Library president Sue Dailey for a donation to purchase an AED.
“We were very happy to provide the funds for the library to purchase an AED,” said Lions Club president-elect Tom Degler. “Our mission is to serve and help the community. Making sure there is an AED, should someone need it, is very rewarding.”
In addition to the donation to the library, the Lions Club also gave an AED to the Schuylkill Valley Youth Baseball organization (SVYB).
In March, the Lions Club sold its building in Centerport, which not only freed up funds to give to the community but also necessitated the distribution of many of the functional items housed in the building. One of these was an AED that would no longer be needed there.
The Lions Club president contacted Nici Kleffel, president of the SVYB, to see if they would be interested in the AED. As it turned out, the timing was perfect.
“What a terrific blessing!” Kleffel said. “We were just about to order an AED that week. We are so very grateful for this donation.”
The AED is maintained at the Leesport baseball fields, available for players and spectators alike.
“Our hope is that no one ever needs it, but it’s so comforting to know it’s there,” Kleffel said.
The Central Berks Lions Club, with nearly fifty members, conducts fund raising activities including sandwich sales, a Kauffman’s chicken barbecue sale and country jamming every second and fourth Tuesday at the newly named Inn of Centerport (formerly the Lions Club building).
One of the tenets of Lions Club International is that all proceeds obtained through sales to the public must be redistributed to individuals and groups in the community.
In addition to the AED donations, the Club has contributed money to people in need of help with sight-related issues, to local families impacted by the sudden death of a breadwinner, to individuals with disabilities, and, recently, to Moment of Peace Adventures, a Bernville organization that provides special hunting and fishing trips to young people with physical disabilities and/or terminal illnesses.
As membership dwindles in club organizations that once formed the backbone of American social life, the Central Berks Lions Club remains a strong reminder that, “we can, we do, we serve.”
