Friends donate defibrillators to parks

Park rangers in Hatcher Pass and Denali State Park will soon be armed with defibrillators and the training to use them if a park visitor has a heart attack.

The Friends of State Parks, Mat-Su, have teamed up with the Valley Healthy Community Program to purchase two automatic electrical defibrillators. One will be stationed in Independence Mine State Historical Park, and the other will go to Denali State Park.

Park rangers will be trained to use them in the event that one of the nearly 700,000 annual park visitors suffers from a heart attack.

"We've had people have heart attacks in our parks," Mat-Su Park Superintendent Dennis Heikes said. While so far none of the attacks have been fatal, he said having access to medical equipment will only help in dealing with such challenges.

With the assistance of grant money, Friends of State Parks, Mat-Su, hopes to eventually see all local parks be equipped with defibrillators, according to Thomas Burek, president of the nonprofit group.

Friends of State Parks, Mat-Su, is also preparing to begin one of its annual fund-raisers. Beginning May 1, the group will sell raffle tickets for around 10 recreational prizes, including a snowmachine and a mountain bike. Burek said they are hoping to raise about $25,000, which will go into the group's general fund and be available for a variety of state park projects.

Burek said raffle tickets will be available at the Mat-Su area headquarters for state parks, located at Finger Lake, and volunteers will be selling them throughout the community as well.