HEARTSafe Community Designation Earned by North Haven

For well over two years, Richard DiNorscia, a former president of the North Haven Rotary Club, was truly dedicated to delivering life saving devices for public buildings in North Haven and providing training for town employees in cardiopulmonary resuscitation. He has reported that First Selectman Michael Freda, as well as several administrators in the schools and town facilities, have expressed their appreciation to the club for donating several of the heart defibrillators. Under his leadership, the North Haven Rotary Club supported a multi-year drive to provide a number of defibrillators for public buildings throughout the community, as well as staff training. Recently, in his words of praise for the past president’s effort to help the town achieve the special recognition, Rotary District Governor-Elect Dr. Richard Bassett described DiNorscia’s accomplishment as his “personal legacy.”

Most of the town-owned Automated External Defibrillators made by Medtronic were provided through the efforts of the North Haven Rotary Club. Dating back to the term of Nicola Casella’s presidency in 2010, three of the $1,000 units which were installed at the elementary schools were purchased through a combination of the club’s resources, as well as donations from Mario Landino, the owner of Paul Mitchell Academy on Washington Avenue, and through the club's partnership with Kids for Kids, Inc. Since then, AED’s were located in areas such as the town’s library and pool directly through the service club’s annual fund raisers, and partially due to a $3,000 matching grant obtained by DiNorscia through Rotary District 7980 in order to obtain the state's recognition of North Haven as a HEARTSafe Community. The training in CPR, as well as in the use of the life saving devices, was provided at no cost to the town by Nelson Ambulance Service. The classes were arranged by their employee, Mark Lesage, who was recently elected as the club’s July 2013 vice president.