20 Year Reunion with 1st person saved by AED in Wisconsin!

Has it been that long?…..

[AEDs have been on the market about 20 years! Their prices have gone from $5,000 to $1,200-$1,500.  Their weight and size has been cut in half at least.  Yet, there is one commonality - they are still lifesaving equipment!]

Twenty years ago Wednesday, Waukesha Wisconsin firefighters Todd Laurent and Jeff Schulz saved Chuck Krebs’ life, using what was a brand new defibrillator at the time.  Chuck and his wife Jackie spent Wednesday evening thanking the men who saved him.

Chuck is the first person in Wisconsin saved by a defibrillator!  He had a heart attack and collapsed while at work inside his garage in Waukesha.  He was pronounced dead, but the firefighters arrived promptly and used the defibrillator to bring Chuck back to life.  Chuck returned to a normal life thanks to his heroes.  To read more:   

http://www.todaystmj4.com/news/local/89081037.html

Family talents lead to a fun weekend!

My husband’s cousin Carol Wickham was one of the individuals among the Woodstock masses 40 years ago. In honor of the historical cultural event in New York her son, Aaron Wickham, threw an honorary historical event for the family band – Genevieve’s New Hip – in Allison, Iowa on Saturday, August 29, 2009. It will live in infamy as band members came from the Northwest, Southwest and Midwest United States to satisfy the entertainment starved masses that gathered and intensified into the evening. Wickstock 2009!

It started with kids playing some rock together as cousins (I believe the band originally was called The Rave) – yet years later they can gather and kick out great tunes and have this unspoken common ground. Now grown with adult lives and different professions such as teacher, government employee, school counselor, accountant, US soldier, restaurant manager – they came together to create something that cohesively bonded their audience, their families, and themselves. The last time they played together was about a year ago at Uncle Jay’s funeral, our Purple Heart WWII family hero. And, played very well they did despite it being with a kids drum set, an old acoustic guitar some family member dusted off from the basement, and a local pawn shop guitar purchase the day before the funeral. It was a brilliant tribute to Uncle Jay’s presence on this earth and what he left behind. The time before that was 10 years or maybe a bit prior! The morning after Wickstock 2009 we sat around drinking coffee and chatting about life, I asked the drummer how long since he had played. You guessed it – at Uncle Jay’s funeral. This is amazing to me…he said it was likeriding a bike. However, what he did not say is that I bet it took lots of earmuffs by his mother and effort during the years of practice to get him to that level.

I believe each individual human has God-given talents and be it sports, writing, competitive strategy, people skills, musical or singing, or interpretive dance talents -  how with just a little hard work or application these talents can be tapped into time and again during a lifetime of building relationships and family bonds. The beauty of talents is truly achieved when we are able to and decide to put those talents to use for the enjoyment and betterment of society or family. Isn’t this really what life is about?

Leave your thoughts below!

Think Safe President/CEO, Paula Wickham

Accomplishing the climb of a lifetime.

I have a really cool story on accomplishments. I love this topic.

I have been reflecting a bit on life and its journey, and I happened to be thinking about my in-laws. The pair are amazing, rarely pausing a moment as they bound back and forth from Florida (winter/spring) to Iowa (summer/fall) and all the while staying active with tennis and attending the numerous family and community events that are the result of having eight offspring and successful educator careers. My mother-in-law is going through painful double knee replacement recovery but has been a tremendous pillar through it. Despite the pain she somehow manages to worry and think about others. Two weeks before the surgery she was traveling to the Portland Coast for a large family reunion and not complaining one bit about the pain she was in with those worn-out knees.

My father-in-law, during that same trip, climbed Mount St. Helens – two days before he turned 70 years old! That is an elevation of 8,365 feet (2,550 m) and he climbed it in one day with his son and grandson. Three generations climbing together, and none of them “mountaineers” – but all of them adventure seekers. According to his grandson (my nephew Blaine), when they checked the records of those whom had climbed to the peak, the next closest in age was 65. That is quite an accomplishment. The real accomplishment is that he climbed it in tennis shoes and hadn’t decided to climb it until the day before. He did not prepare, he did not dwell on it – he just did it.

“It has long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sit back and let things happen to them. They go out and happen to things.” source

Congratulations Tom on this accomplishment – if you ever wonder how you got such a good stack of kids just look at your wife and look in the mirror!