Wear Red for Women donates AED to Sedalia Area Farmers’ Market

August 12, 2024

Wear Red for Women, a Bothwell Foundation committee, recently gave an automated external defibrillator (AED) to the Sedalia Area Farmers’ Market (SAFM), which operates at Nucor Pavilion on the Missouri State Fairgrounds. An AED is a small, lightweight device that allows individuals and first responders to treat sudden cardiac arrest. The machine automatically analyzes the heart rhythm and when appropriate, it delivers an electrical shock to the heart to restore its normal rhythm.

According to an American Heart Association study, survival from cardiac arrest doubled when bystanders stepped in to use a publicly available automated external defibrillator rather than wait until emergency responders arrived.

Funds to purchase the device were raised during the 2024 Wear Red for Women luncheon and auction. The committee’s goal is to have AEDs in every place people work, learn, play or pray in Sedalia and Pettis County. Since the inception of the luncheon event in 2020, nearly 100 AEDs have been placed in or committed to various locations. The 2025 Wear Red for Women event is Feb. 28, 2025.

The Sedalia Area Farmers’ Market received an automated external defibrillator from the Bothwell Foundation. From left, Ashley Wooster, Rhonda Ahern and Connie McLaughlin, committee members; Dianne Simon, Thompson Hills Investment Corporation vice president and committee co-chair; Bev Rollings, SAFM volunteer and board treasurer; Amber Peña, SAFM market manager; Lori Wightman, Bothwell Regional Health Center CEO and committee co-chair;; Erica Petersen, committee member; Leisha Nakagawa, Bothwell Foundation volunteer specialist; and Eddie Crouch, committee member.

Bothwell Regional Health Center is a regional health center serving west-central Missouri with state-of-the-art technology and comprehensive health and wellness services including primary care, specialty care and emergency care. For more information about Bothwell and its services, visit www.brhc.org or find us on Facebook.

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