ABOVE: This Public Access Safety Cabinet, containing an AED, Narcan, and a Stop the Bleed Kit, has been added to the Winnebago Diamonds with another at Gomsrud Park. The first one was originally placed at the Jeffery Kot Fields in Fairmont in October.

FAIRMONT – After the original was placed at the Jeffery Kot Fields in October by Advocates for Health, two new Public Access Safety Cabinets (PASC) have been added at Gomsrud Park and the Winnebago Diamonds in Fairmont.

These cabinets include an AED, Narcan and a Stop the Bleed kit. This project started after Advocates for Health Founder Rich Feneis met current Board Member Emily Schumacher. She told Feneis about Faith Larson, a young woman who passed away from a sudden cardiac arrest. An AED was not available to her friends who were with her, as the nearest one was locked inside a school.

“Typical emergency medical services might take 20 to 30 minutes,” Feneis said. “You need to do something in four to six minutes in order to have a chance.”

The charge has been led in part by Faith Larson’s father, Terry Larson, who grew up in East Chain. Schumacher said Larson’s desire to take care of his hometown helped start efforts in the Fairmont area with the PASC at the Jeffery Kot Fields.

“I think that’s something that, as people and as a community, we should do all across the country, and in this state,” she said. “Terry’s a living example of that, and he’s trying to do something good, so that no parent, no other person has to go through what he’s gone through, what his family has gone through.”

In the first few months of the PASC being available, and training being held on the equipment, Schumacher said the reception to the addition has been positive.

“People are always really curious and eager to learn because of those chances, maybe one of their family members suffering from a sudden cardiac arrest,while at a holiday event,” she said.

The plan for Advocates for Health was always to put multiple PASCs in Fairmont.

“We want pads to a patient within like three to four minutes,” Schumacher said. “In a city like Fairmont, you’re gonna need a couple depending on your city size to make sure that you have that quick access to that AED to go get it, and then bring it back to that patient.”

Funded in part due to Opiate Settlement Fund grants, Feneis said it usually takes multiple sources to get funding together for a PASC.

“A large part is Terry’s efforts and his knowledge and people in his area that give him tons of credit for what he’s done,” he said. “It’s a real passion for him. What typically happens is it’s a combination or group effort where it might be there are national grants out there that start the process, and right now there’s opiate settlement money, as an example.”

Since the new PASCs were placed in March, Larson said people have taken notice of the work everyone has put in to make this possible.

“There hasn’t been a save there yet, but they’re running if indeed that ever happens,” he said. “Just in the last year, I’ve seen two people fall. You just never know where you’re going to be, and when something might happen to somebody, you know, and you know it’s so we try to put them where people gather.”

Moving forward, Larson said the group’s goal is to continue placing them around Martin and Faribault Counties, wherever there is demand. While they would like to put one in every city in Martin County, Larson said they have to find and coordinate the funding each time, which is always plenty of work.

“If a town or a big player steps up and really gets it close, we’re gonna get you on,” he said.

For more information, visit advocates4health.org, email info@advocates4health.org, or call 1-855-728-7828.