Local West Virginia State Police detachments will now be equipped with AED (automated external defibrillator) devices thanks to a donation from Lowe’s Home Improvement.
Several members from the Lowe’s team dropped off seven of the life-saving machines at the State Police detachment in Morgantown Wednesday morning.
Lowe’s Regional Asset Protection Director Nic Horst said the AED devices run around $2,500 each when purchased.
“The Lowe’s investigative team reached out to just the regional directors of different areas and asked if we could reach out to our first responders and support them in any way, because we have some extra AED devices in our stores that we would love to donate.”
Horst said Lowe’s has always had a great relationship with 1st Sgt. Geoffrey Petsko and the West Virginia State Police. Through those relationships, Horst reached out to Petsko and asked if they needed any.
“And he said absolutely,” Horst said. “Sgt. Petsko and the West Virginia State Police have always been absolutely excellent at responding to some situations that we deal with, so we really appreciate what they have done.”
Petsko, who is the State Police District Commander, said the devices will be distributed to several area detachments.
“We are going to outfit them to the Morgantown, Grafton and Kingwood detachments,” Petsko said. “And with seven of them we will probably be giving some to the next district down which would be Fairmont and that area.”
Petsko said it will provide peace of mind knowing that the state police detachments, at least in this area, will have an AED.
“These devices can be essential – I mean lifesaving in certain circumstances,” Petsko said. “Fortunately we have never needed one so far, but clearly with the people we deal with and things that happen inside and outside of the detachment these would be lifesaving.
“Especially in some of our rural detachments, like Kingwood and Grafton, where it might take extended time for medical assistance to get there.”
Horst said the team at Lowe’s was happy to be able to help.
“Lowe’s has great teamwork with local law enforcement, especially in the asset protection world,” Horst said. “They are absolutely great partners so it’s pretty cool to be able to give back. Hopefully they are never used, but we are happy to support the community that way.”
Petsko said that it is always nice to see support from the community.
“In this day in age you can’t turn on the television without seeing something negative about law enforcement,” Petsko said. “It really helps to know that the community does in fact back police and in this case specifically the West Virginia State Police.”
Petsko said law enforcement works as hard as they can to help the civilians and businesses in our area and he is grateful to see people come back and offer them some help.
“It’s frustrating sometimes when support wanes,” he said. “But days like this really invigorate us to do our jobs and know that we do actually have the support and backing of the community.”
