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Johnson County proclaims American Heart Month; Rotary Kerber campaign reports AED expansion
Summary
The board adopted a proclamation recognizing February 2025 as American Heart Month and heard an update on the Rotary Kerber Heart Safe Community Campaign's work to expand AED placement, public training and a new library-based AED-trainer loan program.
The Johnson County Board of Supervisors unanimously adopted a proclamation declaring February 2025 as American Heart Month and recognizing the Rotary Kerber Heart Safe Community Campaign during its January meeting.
Dr. Jim Merchant, chair of the Rotary Kerber Heart Safe Community Campaign, told supervisors the campaign has added roughly 20 new automated external defibrillators (AEDs), and that a cost-sharing program and donor support help purchase units for nonprofits and small businesses. “We continue to get tremendous support from donors raising about $50,000 a year, to allow these units to be bought cheaply,” Merchant said.
Fiona Johnson, ambulance director for Johnson County, described additional campaign activities, including donated AED-trainer mannequins placed at the Coralville, North Liberty and Iowa City public libraries for community check-out and training. She also introduced Tammy Wiggum, who leads the county’s Cardiac Arrest Response and Education Committee (CARESY) and helped update the PulsePoint registry. Johnson said the library program will include demonstrations and translated instructions to increase public training and registration of AEDs.
Why it matters: Out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest has a low national survival rate; the board’s proclamation and the campaign’s steps aim to increase bystander CPR and AED access countywide. The library loan program and registry work are intended to make training and equipment more discoverable.
Details from the meeting: Merchant said the campaign has placed combination durable locked AED enclosures, including units sited in more remote areas. He provided a breakdown of subsidized prices the campaign has been using: nonprofits can obtain AED units for $500, small businesses for $750 and larger employers for $1,000 (as described in the meeting).
The board voted to adopt the proclamation with no recorded dissent. Supervisors thanked the campaign volunteers and donor community for the program’s progress.
The campaign plans additional public outreach this spring, including television advertising and an AED survey to locate unregistered devices.
