Dialogue: On board with defibrillation program

Northwestern Financial Review, Dec 15-Dec 31, 2002 by Drake, Marsha

The article titled "How to Save a Life" in your October 1-14 edition was of special interest to us at Anchor Bancorp. The reason it was interesting is that we have already answered the appeal of the writer, Keith Griffiths, by establishing a defibrillation program in our banks.

We are a community bank group with five bank charters in 13 locations in the Twin Cities. In January 2001, Carl Jones, our holding company president, expressed interest in AEDs and the public defibrillation programs he had heard about. He discussed it with many employees, met with vendors, and set up a small focus group that got our program started.

We currently have an AED in each of our locations, and 131 employees who volunteered to be in the program have been trained in how to use the AEDs. The four-hour class each of them attended also equipped them for CPR and helping stroke and choking victims. Two-hour refresher classes are also required annually.

Our local fire and law enforcement officials and tenants are aware that we have AEDs on site, but we feel fortunate that we have not yet been called upon to use one. The stories of lives being saved by other defibrillator programs strengthen our resolve to remain committed to the program, even though we haven't seen the results first-hand.

We would encourage other bank groups and independent banks to set up their own AED programs. We feel we are serving our customers and our community by having the program, and as Carl Jones said at the beginning of our program, "It makes a strong statement that we care."

Marsha Drake

Internal Audit Director

Anchor Bancorp, Inc.

Apple Valley, Minn.