Extraco Bank gives lifesaving gift to center

Tuesday, 05 February 2013 by Grayson Edds

Bobby Johnson read the plaque thanking Extraco Bank for their donation of an AED to the Belton Activity Center during a special presentation made on Tuesday. The Belton Activity Senior Center received an important, lifesaving gift recently. And in order to say thank you, the Senior Center hosted a special presentation on Tuesday.

Jay Taggart, Military Relations Committee Chairman for the Belton Chamber of Commerce, took the floor to thank Extraco Bank for their donation.

"We wanted to take a few minutes this morning to say an extra thank you to Extraco Bank for a very generous donation that they made to the Belton Senior Activity Center through our organization Belton Area Citizens for Seniors," said Taggart.

Taggart gave credit to both Bobby Johnson, who is on the board of directors for BACFS.

"Bobby is on our finance committee and fundraising committee," Taggart said. "And one of the thoughts they had was that when we have a need for something that's not in our budget, we turn to our community for their generosity to help us out. We made one phone call to Mr. John Agan, who is with Extraco Bank. Extraco came back and said they would be more than happy to make a donation to us which allowed us to buy an AED, Automatic External Defibrillator."

An automated external defibrillator (AED) is a portable electronic device that automatically diagnoses the potentially life threatening cardiac arrhythmias of ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia in a patient,[1] and is able to treat them through defibrillation, the application of electrical therapy which stops the arrhythmia, allowing the heart to reestablish an effective rhythm. With simple audio and visual commands, AEDs are designed to be simple to use for the layman, and the use of AEDs is taught in many first aid, first responder, and basic life support (BLS) level CPR classes.[2]

Patsy Cofer, Activity Director, said that because of the nature of age range of most of those who visit the Senior Center, they probably have more use for AED than other places. Patsy, along with 10 staff and volunteers have all been trained on how to use the AED.

"We hope it never has to be used, but if it does need to be used, we're going to be blessed to have it here," said Taggart. "It will be something that we will continue to have staff trained to use in the event that someone does have a cardiac arrest at the center."

Taggart went on to address Steve Wolf and John Agan from Extraco Bank, expressing his thanks and presenting the bank with a plaque which read, 'In appreciation to Extraco Banks for the lifesaving gift of an AED given to the the Belton Activity Senior Center on January 29, 2013.'

Agan said that it's always been important to the bank to reach out to the community.

"We're happy to do this," he said. "Extraco is a hundred year-old, family-owned company in Central Texas and one of our main drivers in our mission is to serve our communities. We're happy to be able to do this and give a little bit back."

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