MONTEGO BAY, St James – Team Jamaica Bickle Inc, a US-based non-profit organisation made up of a group of Jamaicans living in that country and GraceKennedy Ltd, last week distributed 20 automated external defibrillators (AEDs), valued at over $290,000, to secondary schools in the Ministry of Education’s Region 3, 4 and 5 during a workshop at the S Hotel in Montego Bay.

Region 3 encompasses the parishes of St Ann and Trelawny, while Region 4 comprises St James, Hanover and Westmoreland, and Region 5, the parishes of Manchester and St Elizabeth.

The donation brings the total number of the machines donated to schools islandwide by the group to over 70.

President of the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA), Keith Wellington, said the project was started five years ago to equip schools in Jamaica with the defibrillators following the death of 17-year-old St Jago High athlete, Calvin McKenzie, who died of a heart attack after competing in the NACAC Cross Country Championships in the twin-island republic of Trinidad & Tobago in February 2014.

“Team Jamaica Bickle found out that we (Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association) did not have these equipment and they started the project to put defibrillators in each school. So far, we have over 70 schools who have a defibrillator, starting from zero,” disclosed Wellington.

Wellington in expressing gratitude for the gift, said the machines will form part of another safeguard measure to protect the lives of children.

“We understand that as young people they may not necessarily be eating as prescribed. They may be doing things that we are unaware of that is detrimental to their health. So, when we are able to put in place equipment that can save their lives if the need arises, we are really grateful for that opportunity,” he stated.

Chairman of Team Jamaica Bickle Inc, Irwine Claire, who pointed to a few incidents involving athletes, emphasised the importance of the AED machines.

“We all would have known about Calvin McKenzie who collapsed and died on a field in Trinidad and more recently, Dominic James, and countless situations which happened, and a machine wasn’t there,” said Claire.

“AED machines are critical. We saw recently this year where world-renowned long-distance runner Kemoy Campbell, who collapsed at the Millrose Games, and luckily for him, it was the AED machines that saved his life. We at Team Jamaica Bickle are committed to our athletes. It has always been about our athletes when we started 25 years ago, and it still is today.”

In February of this year, when the 28-year-old Campbell collapsed at the games in New York City, he was given chest compressions by emergency medical technician (EMT) staff and treated with a defibrillator on the scene before he was transported to New York-Presbyterian/Columbia University Hospital.

On September 20, 2016, the football fraternity both locally and abroad was shaken by the passing of James, the 18-year-old captain of the St George’s College football team, who died at the University Hospital of the West Indies, after collapsing two minutes into an ISSA/FLOW Manning Cup match against Excelsior High at Stadium East.

Head of the Physical Education department at Munro College in St Elizabeth Steve Cole said while his school has not had any such incidents, the AED machine is an important piece of equipment to have.

“Thankfully, we have had no such incidents, but it is better to have the machine and not need it, than to need it and not have it. It is necessary in all schools,” Cole posited.

Ministry of Education’s Region Four Education Officer Cecelia Jackson, in her greetings, expressed gratitude to the organisation for their sacrifice and love for Jamaica, as she stressed the importance of the equipment.

“Team Jamaica Bickle and GraceKennedy, you have made the schools that will be benefiting from these defibrillators in regions 3, 4 and 5 more empowered,” said Jackson.

“I encourage principals, or their designates, and physical education teachers, to endeavour to be good stewards of these instruments. Take good care of them and use them appropriately. Let us learn from Team Jamaica Bickle and GraceKennedy Ltd the importance of giving back so that this action of generosity will be sustained over an extended period of time,” the senior educator encouraged.