About My Campaign
In December 2024, I woke to my mother calling for help because my father wasn’t responding. It was a moment no one is ever truly prepared for. Just months earlier, I had completed a CPR course, yet when everything suddenly became real, I felt overwhelmed. As I stayed on the phone with first responders, doing the compressions I had only ever practiced in training, I tried desperately to stay focused. The emotions, the fear, the uncertainty — everything pressed down at once. Minutes stretched into what felt like an eternity. And as I did everything I could in that moment, a quiet question formed in the back of my mind: If an AED had been available, could it have changed this?
My father passed suddenly that morning at just 58. He was the kind of person who put others first without hesitation, someone who made you feel heard, valued, and cared for. He would have done anything to help someone else. That is why this project matters so deeply to me. It is a way to honour who he was by doing something that might give another family the chance we didn’t have.
Memorial Park is one of the busiest and most cherished places in our community. It hosts sports games, movie nights, the Strawberry Festival, Victoria Day celebrations, and countless families enjoying the outdoors during the warmer months. It is a place full of life, connection, and shared moments. And yet, if a cardiac emergency were to happen there, the nearest AED is a 10-minute round-trip walk away at the Leisure Centre. The risk is even greater because the Leisure Centre is not always open, especially during major outdoor events when the park is at its busiest. In situations where seconds carry life-or-death weight, the distance and limited access are far too great. Survival decreases by up to 10% for every minute without defibrillation, yet when an AED is used immediately alongside CPR, the chances of survival can more than double.
A Save Station Tower would place an AED in the park at all times: day or night, winter or summer, during crowded celebrations or quiet evening walks. These stations are designed to withstand extreme weather, protect the device, and remain accessible to anyone who needs it. No training is required to use an AED; it guides the bystander step by step. It is built for ordinary people who suddenly find themselves in the hardest, most unexpected moments of their lives, just as I did.
When I think back to that morning with my father, I remember the helplessness, the frantic fear, and the desperate hope that what I was doing might be enough. I remember wishing that something — anything — could have tipped the odds in his favour. This project comes from that feeling. It comes from the hope that if someone else collapses in the park, the people around them will not have to wonder whether help is too far away. Maybe, because an AED is right there — visible, accessible, and ready to use — a life could be saved.
At the very least, I hope this sparks conversations about what it truly means to be prepared. Emergencies do not wait for the right time, the right place, or the right people. But we can choose to be a community that equips itself, that cares enough to act before tragedy strikes, and that believes a single life saved is worth everything.
Thank you for helping honour my father’s memory by bringing lifesaving access to Memorial Park — a place where families gather, where moments are shared, and where being prepared can make all the difference.
