A recent impact grant awarded by the Starke County Community Foundation is helping local emergency personnel save lives.
Starke County Emergency Medical Services (EMS) used the $14,350 they received from the SCCF to purchase a LUCAS CPR Device, and paid for one year of maintenance for the medical apparatus. The technology performs non-stop CPR, freeing the EMS responder to treat and transport the patient to the emergency room.
According to a press release from the Community Foundation, grant committee members received a demonstration of the device from a company representative and learned that the device had been used on a patient for 21 hours, saving the patient’s life and resulting in 99 percent brain function post-event. The device will be housed in the Knox Starke County EMS location.
So far this year, the SCCF has awarded for than $315,000 in grants and scholarships and more than $40,000 has been granted through the Community Support and Impact Grants program.
Other grant recipients include the Starke County Park Board which received $5,000 for Bass Lake Beach improvements, the North Judson Beautification Committee which was awarded $7,970 for the band shell at Norwayne Field, the Yellow Stone Trail Festival which got $3,900 for programming, Psi Iota Xi was awarded $2,000 for the 2018 Young Artists’ Conference and $600 was awarded to Starke County Community Corrections for Therapeutic Community programming.
In addition to assisting those organizations, SCCF also provided $2,674 to the North Judson-Wayne Township Fire Department for protective gear, $2,000 to the Habitat for Humanity Starke and Pulaski Counties, $1,000 was given to the Knox and Winamac Community Health Center for health fair supplies and $2,279 in various grants was awarded to Starke County Schools.
Area nonprofits interested in a grant should visit nicf.org or contact Associate Director Corrine Becknell Lucas at 574-223-2227.
