Defibrillators for Bigfork High School

By ALEX STRICKLAND / Bigfork Eagle

It didn't take Serra Valentine long to drum up a pretty significant amount of money last week for a fundraiser she organized to raise money for additional automatic external defibrillators for Bigfork High School.

Valentine said her goal is $3,500 for three portable AED units, with the hope that they would be transported to teams' practice fields during the year.

"The community has spoken and what they're saying is that they want the school district to protect the kids," she said on Friday as she handed over the $1,600 to BHS assistant principal Matt Jensen, who stopped Valentine and told her he wanted it to be "a positive message." Another $1,200 came in over the weekend.

Valentine turned the initial funds over to the district on Friday at an ad hoc press conference at the district office, something that Jensen and Superintendent Russ Kinzer said caught them by surprise.

"Community fundraisers on behalf of the school are welcome," Kinzer said. "In regard to the AED fundraiser, Ms. Valentine called a press conference to give the funds raised to the school district but didn't tell anyone at the school district. It was a strange way of contributing."

Several television stations and newspapers, including the Eagle, were present.

Valentine got donations from more than 20 individuals and businesses, including donations of art from Eric Thorsen and Midnight Sun Gallery in Bigfork.

She said the local chapter of Ducks Unlimited was lending her two silent auction stands and boxes to display the art and collect money. They will be located in the lobbies of Flathead and Glacier Banks in Bigfork.

Valentine, who was an outspoken critic of the district in the wake of BHS football player Jeffrey Bowman's collapse on the football field and subsequent death in August 2007, said she has been frustrated by the district's reluctance to buy more defibrillators or put an emergency plan that she submitted on the school board agenda.

The plan was taken from the National High School Football Association, she said.

Kinzer said there are already emergency procedures in place, some of which are undergoing a regularly scheduled revision, and that the district's four AEDs were considered adequate by the board when they voted for their purchase about five years ago.

"We've had a plan in place for nine or 10 years," Kinzer said.

The district has four AEDs placed in both the high school and elementary school buildings. One is in the main lobby of each school, one is in the nurse's office in the elementary school and one — available for checkout or for backup — in the district office.

"When the board initially approved direction for the AEDs, they wanted to place them in locations with the greatest concentration of people," Kinzer said.

The board will vote at their next meeting to accept the donation, and then, Kinzer said, it will be up to Valentine to stipulate where she wants the units placed before the district makes the purchase.

The district, along with head football coach Bruce Corbett and former Athletic Director Shannon Smith, is the subject of a lawsuit filed by the Bowman family in federal court seeking unspecified damages for Jeffrey's death.

The Bowmans alleged in a statement that accompanied the lawsuit to local media that the use of one of the school's defibrillators could have saved their son.

Valentine said she just wants the school to take what she sees as the necessary precautions, even if it's over and above what is prescribed by law, including requiring that all coaches are CPR certified.

"We just want the school to get coaches certified and get AEDs at the fields and we'll get off their backs," she said.

To donate money, call Valentine at 871-9471.