South Whitehall’s police department recently received a lifesaving gift.

Rachel Moyer of Shawnee on Delaware, Monroe County, donated an automated external defibrillator to the police department at a recent township commissioners’ meeting.

Moyer, director of AED placement and advocacy programs with the Greg W. Moyer Defibrillator Fund, retired from teaching in 2007 after 24 years in the classroom, to devote her time to AED advocacy.

“I started donating AEDs after my son Greg, a 15-year-old sophomore at Notre Dame High School in East Stroudsburg, suffered a sudden cardiac arrest while playing basketball and died on Dec. 2, 2000,” she told The Press.

“Notre Dame, playing in a new multimillion dollar school, didn’t have an AED machine.

“We established the Greg W. Moyer Defibrillator Fund the night Greg died in the hospital,” Moyer said. “It was after one of the emergency room nurses told us there should have been an AED at the school.”

Greg, who stood about 6 feet 3 inches tall in 10th grade, weighed about 210 pounds.

The youngest of three children, having two older sisters, Greg loved playing sports, especially basketball and soccer.

“Greg was a lovable kid with the best disposition. I never saw him angry,” Moyer said. “He was always the one who would look out for others.

“He was the kid who could always make someone feel better no matter what the situation.”

“He had a great sense of humor, very dry. He enjoyed being the one that made everyone laugh.

“After Greg died, people told me stories of things he had done that I never knew about.”

Moyer said as a former teacher she could take everyone’s kid out for a fire drill, but she was never taught what to do in a cardiac emergency and the importance of knowing cardiopulmonary resuscitation and having an AED on site.

“The last child or adult who died in a school fire was in 1958 at Our Lady of Angels Catholic Elementary School in Chicago, where 92 students and three nuns died,” Moyer said. “As a result, there were major improvements in fire codes, sprinkler systems, fire alarms, smoke detectors, fire drills and in school design.

“Yet there was no requirement for schools to have AEDs or staff trained in CPR/AED use,” Moyer said. “In 2001, Pennsylvania passed the first AED legislation in the country.

“It was introduced by former state Rep. Kelly Lewis, R-189th, and passed into law on Greg’s 16th birthday April 25, 2001.”

Moyer said in 2014, then state Rep. Rosemary Brown, R-189th, sponsored a bill requiring every Pennsylvania school district to register the number of AEDs in its schools, the manufacturer, year it was manufactured and location.

“Only half of the public districts have complied in Pennsylvania. Some districts only have the two AEDs received in 2002-03 from our first law,” Moyer stated.

Moyer said AEDs are like computers or cell- phones they have internal circuits that wear out and new AEDs are needed.

“There is no excuse for there not to be AEDs present in schools, with police or any location where the public gathers,” Moyer stated.

She said the cost of AEDs when Greg died in 2000 was $3,300. Today, it is less than $1,500.

“Approximately 350,000 children, teens and adults die each year from sudden cardiac arrest because there is not an AED available,” Moyer stated.

She said the chance of survival increases from 6 percent to 8 percent with CPR alone to 80 percent if an AED is used in less than three minutes on a person, who has collapsed because of sudden cardiac arrest.

“The Greg W. Moyer Defibrillator Fund has donated 3,200 AEDs all over the country,” Moyer stated. “I think we have only missed North Dakota and Iowa, but we will get there.”

“A majority of the AED donations have been to schools and student athletics programs,” she said. “We also have a program called Shocks for Cops of which South Whitehall Township Police received its AED.”

Funds to purchase the AEDs come from private individuals, businesses, grants, Rotary Clubs, Kiwanis, Masons, PTA, PTO, athletic clubs, professional sports teams and their athletes.

“I chose South Whitehall Police Department to donate to because of its location as well as its coverage of Dorney Park,” Moyer said. “My three kids loved Dorney Park growing up and I thought South Whitehall Township police was a good fit to ‘Let the Beat Go On’

“I had hoped this donation would be a thank you as well as an awareness that AEDs are so important to our communities.”

South Whitehall Board of Commissioners President Christina “Tori” Morgan commented via email about the AED donation.

“We are honored to have been a recipient of the Greg Moyer AED donation from his mother Rachel Moyer,” Morgan said. “Rachel has been very active in spreading the message and educating schools and municipal government entities on the importance of AEDs to save lives.”

“The AED donated to South Whitehall will be used by our police department, who have direct contact with the public each and everyday.

“The South Whitehall team is dedicated to the safety of our community and we will continue with this drive with the support of the AED as well as continue to honor the memory of Greg Moyer.”

South Whitehall Township Police Chief John T. Christman also commented via email on the donation.

“Rachel chose South Whitehall Police Department because we already had a viable AED program in place,” Christman said. “In fact we were one AED short of having an AED in every front line patrol vehicle.

“Rachel’s donation closed that small gap. Now every front line patrol car is equipped with an AED.”

Christman said he became acquainted with Rachel at the recent Pennsylvania Chiefs of Police conference.

“She is extremely dedicated to her cause of getting as many AEDs in public places as possible,” Christman said. “The police department is very grateful for her very generous donation.”

To learn more information about the Greg W. Moyer Defibrillator Fund or to donate, go to gregaed.org or email Rachel@Greg AED. org.