AHSAA Director of Publications Kim Vickers presents Vinemont High School Assistant Principal Todd Johnson with the new AED device in Montgomery Thursday morning. (photo courtesy of Todd Johnson)
MONTGOMERY, Ala. – Vinemont High School Assistant Principal Todd Johnson made the trip to the Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) offices in Montgomery Thursday morning and came back with some new medical equipment for the Vinemont campus. Johnson received a free AED (automated external defibrillator) and AED station from the National Federation of High Schools (NFHS) and his was one of 13 applications that were accepted in the state.
Johnson is excited to be able to bring this new equipment back to campus and feels very fortunate to be one of the few schools that get to take advantage of this program.
“It’s coming from the NFHS, Davis Whitfield is the CFO and they started a program where they give out 13 AEDs across the state of Alabama,” Johnson said. “I believe I was told today that there were 143 that applied or wrote a letter of need and we were one of just 13 to receive one so that was pretty exciting.”
There was an AED on campus at Vinemont already but by adding another one, Johnson feels even better about the safety of the students on campus.
“It makes our campus safer. We only had one and we had to split it between the high school gym and the field house. Our county nurse was able to acquire one after I had already applied for this so we had that one but we needed one in the agriculture shop and for the baseball field so our campus will be totally covered now,” Johnson said. “There will be one in the middle school, one at the elementary school, we’ll have one at the field house, one at the gym and we’ll have one covering the back part of our campus with the ag. shop and the baseball field.”
Obviously, no one wants to see the equipment put to use but if that ever becomes necessary, Johnson is happy to know that that the entire campus is covered and ready for that possibility.
“I pray that we never have to use them but if the situation ever arises, we’ll be covered.”
Copyright 2019 Humble Roots, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
