AEDs donated after election judge saved life at township hall
Published 10:49 am Tuesday, April 21, 2009
When Rita Hanegraaf saved a life at the September 2008 primary election, her actions spawned other life-saving opportunities.
Hanegraaf performed CPR on a heart attack victim at the 2008 election in the Windom Township-City of Rose Creek Hall.
The elderly Rose Creek woman recovered from her ordeal and is doing well today thanks to Hanegraaf’s quick thinking.
Hanegraaf is a certified member of the Mower County Chapter of the American Red Cross Disaster Action Team in Rose Creek, so she was trained to respond to the emergency.
Now, Hanegraaf has gone a step further and helped the Rose Creek Volunteer Fire Department at the meeting hall for city and township government, as well as fire department headquarters.
Firefighters will have an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) at their disposal, while another AED will be ready for use at the hall.
“It was such a heart-warming story how Rita saved the lady’s life,” Deb Hanson said. “It touched my heart and brought tears to my eyes.”
Hanson was the right person to take notice of the act of heroism. She is the chief financial officer for the Worth County Development Authority, which is responsible for distributing a share of the gambling proceeds at Diamond Jo’s Casino in Northwood, Iowa.
Hanson and her husband, Gary, himself a volunteer firefighter at Kensett, Iowa, drove to Rose Creek last Thursday night to present Hanegraaf with the grant check for the AED’s purchase.
Twice each year, the Worth County Development Authority distributes gambling proceeds to non-profit agencies and organizations in the northern Iowa and southern Minnesota areas, who have submitted applications for funding.
Union Presbyterian Church, near Stacyville, Iowa, and the London Volunteer Fire Department are among those entities to receive funds in the past.
More than $1 million was distributed last week by the Worth County Development Authority to successful grant applicants in the first of two rounds of gambling proceeds distributions this year.
“We also have a special pool of money from our investments that we use to make special grants of money to charities,” Hanson said. “When Rita’s grant application came in, I read the newspaper clipping that came with it about how she had saved the woman’s life, and that they didn’t have an AED in the hall to use in other emergencies of this kind.”
“The board said ‘Go ahead and cut her a check,’ and it was fun to give her a call saying we are giving you a grant,” Hanson said.
Hanegraaf wrote a grant application to the Worth County Development Authority
seeking money to purchase an AED for the township.
She said having Red Cross CPR training gave her an edge that persons without the training don’t have. Now, having an AED in the busiest place in Rose Creek will give the entire community a life-saving edge.
Jim Wagoner and Gerry Herd, Windom Township supervisors, said the township was glad to participate in purchasing the AED
The Windom Township Board agreed to pay 25 percent of the costs of the AED.
The rest — $15,000 — came from the Worth County Development Authority.
With one AED in the hall, the Rose Creek Volunteer Fire Department also purchased one to make available to the firefighters, when responding to an emergency, requiring an AED.
“We appreciate the generous grant very much. We will use the AED I am sure,” said Fred Ulven, Rose Creek fire chief.
All this because Hanegraaf, the trained Red Cross volunteer, was an election judge on the day a heart attack emergency occurred in the popular community gathering place.
The Southland Elementary School has its own AED, but the ones Hanegraaf’s involvement has helped purchase are the only others in the community.
Hanegraaf will be honored in ceremonies scheduled at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Mower County Chapter of the American Red Cross in Austin, when she receives the Award of Merit for her act of life-saving heroism at the September 2008 primary election.