Staples parents Mark Gudis and MaryGrace Gudis have started a cardiac arrest awareness initiative with the Norwalk Hospital by installing 100 automatic external defibrillators in the communities of Westport, Wilton, Weston, Norwalk and New Canaan.

Mark, a trustee for the Norwalk hospital, explained that he and his wife decided to design a pilot program that can be emulated in different communities. “We feel that being proactive and preventive in nature, is the only way to make a community truly a ‘heartsafe’ community.”

Mary Grace, a board member of the Foundation at the Norwalk Hospital, said that the idea for the initiative was prompted after her husband luckily had a defibrillator in his car for Andrew Ingber ’16, who  went into sudden cardiac arrest on school grounds in October. “Fortunately, we were all at the right place at the right time with the right resources, but this is generally not the case,” Mary Grace said.

Ingber, who is fully recovered from the incident, explained his gratefulness for the initiative to help the community in the future. “Knowing that lives of others will be saved from our school facilities, means that other people may benefit from what happened to me,” he said.

The initiative goes past the donation of defibrillators. As Mark explained, it also promotes CPR training in education for the school and closer examination on schools’ medical resources.

Grace Linhard, Western Connecticut Health Network’s Chief Development Officer, has worked with the Gudis family on this project, and stressed the importance of health education teaching students how to use defibrillators. “You would be surprised on how easy A.E.D.s are to use,” Linhard laughed. “They have instructions that take you through every step of it, so literally anyone who has one could save someone’s life.”

One of the Staples athletic trainers, Gateano Dieso, has similar thoughts on the initiative. “A.E.D.’s are crucial for saving lives, and we should be blessed and grateful to have them in the community,” she said.

The Greenlee family of Staples, however, has already raised money for 75 A.E.D.s for school grounds with the help of the Ingber and the Panzer family, which prompted the Gudis family to expand the implementation of A.E.D.s to other locations and towns.

After meeting with the First Selectman, the Gudis’s were told that A.E.D.s would be most beneficial in places such as the library, town hall, the senior center and other locations in Westport.

Linhard also expressed the desire to expand the initiative past Fairfield County and eventually install A.E.D.s in as many communities as they can. “This is the beginning of a long term goal,” Linhard said. “We are hoping to actually make a difference for future generations with this initiative.”

Mark has similar thoughts, as he wants this initiative to make a change farther than just Westport’s surrounding communities. “We hope this initiative can be a model for other communities throughout the State and across the Country,” he said.