The Defibrillator Story

In 2007 the Board of Benevolence elected to go to all Freemasons in New Zealand and seek their opinion on a range of ideas for a national project as well as looking for alternatives. Not only would this have the effect of checking the willingness and enthusiasm amongst the membership for such a scheme but also, the act of consulting showed serious consideration of their opinions and would therefore engender better co-operation should it proceed.

The response was overwhelmingly in favour of supplying defibrillator units throughout the country. Our local lodges are constantly encouraged to support their local communities and so the suggestion was that the units would be placed in locations that gave best access to the community and/or in meeting rooms that were open for most of the day.

The next question was how might the project be managed?

 It was decided that The Freemasons Charity would partner with freemasons throughout New Zealand to provide the units. Any number of lodges within a District could combine to gather 50% of the cost of a unit and The Freemasons Charity undertook to provide the balance.

Two suppliers had been selected to provide the defibrillator units Amtech in Wanganui in the North Island and Red Cross in the South Island. The suppliers undertook to supply the units, arrange any necessary training and to provide “after sales service” to ensure the units were kept in good order.

The training is minimal as the selected public access units virtually tell the user how to operate the machine.

The project has been tremendously successful and by mid-year the goal is to have distributed 40 units throughout the country thereby continuing the tradition of caring in partnership with Freemasons in New Zealand.

At the time of going to print that goal has been exceeded, 45 units have been distributed nationwide to:

Several police stations             Community Halls

Volunteer Coastguard             Ambulance Stations

Library                                    Aquatic Centre

Surf Life Saving Clubs             Cinema

A pharmacy

A retirement village

Medical centre

Museum

AND WE ARE NOT FINISHED YET !