Indianapolis, In. — As of January 23, 2019, Indiana governor Eric Holcomb offered a personal “Thank You” to the President and Board Members of the Bolt For The Heart (BFTH) foundation were welcomed to Governor Holcomb’s office for a personal “Thank you” for donating an additional 134 AED units to the Indiana State Police.
This brings the total number of AED units donated to the state police to 465 and marks the fulfillment of a 2014 pledge by BFTH to put an AED in state police road patrol vehicles. The value of this donation exceeds $600,000.
The governor visited with Pierre Twer, the President of the BFTH, a non-profit organization, along with BFTH Board Members, corporate friends of BFTH and state police officers that recently received an AED the result of the latest fund raising drive held on Thanksgiving Day last year.
Related to the most recent donation of AED units, Pierre Twer commented, “While this past Thanksgiving Day run raised enough funds to purchase 114 AED units, we couldn’t have made the goal of 134 without a special donation from our good friends and partners at HeartSaver, a committee of volunteers representing Deaconess Foundation and The Heart Hospital at Deaconess Gateway in Evansville, Indiana.” Twer continued, “HeartSaver donated 20 AED units in 2018 and 15 in 2017, all of which allowed for the placement of placed AEDs in state police vehicles from the Jasper, Evansville and Putnamville state police posts.” Twer concluded, “Since October of 2014 HeartSaver has helped save countless lives through their donation of more than 300 AEDs in the tri state region of Southern Illinois, Southwestern Indiana and Western Kentucky.”
Indiana State Police Superintendent Doug Carter, who was also present at today’s event commented, “I can’t put into words what the donations of AEDs has meant to the state police and to the people whose lives have already been saved because of organizations like HeartSaver and Bolt For The Heart.” Carter concluded, “Pierre, all I can truly say is ‘Thank you’ for having a vision and putting that vision into action through Bolt For The Heart; no one will ever truly know how many lives your vision will save.”
When asked about what the future holds for Bolt For The Heart Twer said, “Now we’re ready to turn our efforts toward the many other local and county police agencies in Indiana that could benefit by having an AED in an officer’s patrol vehicle, because our ultimate goal is to have an AED in every police vehicle in Indiana.”
