The Borrego Valley Endowment Fund provided a grant totaling $188,826.03 to the Borrego Springs Fire Protection District, which will allow the District to purchase five brand new, industry gold-standard, Zoll X Series Advanced Monitor/ Defibrillators, and additional equipment.

The BSFPD provides essential services to ensure the health and safety of Borrego Springs residents and the approximately one million visitors to the region each year. Heart monitors and defibrillators are among the most important equipment in their arsenal of life-saving machines.

When the Borrego Valley Endowment Fund (bvefund.org) learned that the Fire District’s heart monitor/defibrillators were at “end of life” and were not capable of being upgraded, the BVEF opened discussion with the Fire District on how to replace these vitally important machines. After installation, each of Borrego’s fire trucks and ambulances will now be equipped with these state of the art machines. The grant also allows special training for the Firefighter/Paramedics to operate and maintain the apparatus.

Heart monitor/defibrillators are essential in the treatment of life-threatening cardiac disease. This emergency equipment is especially important for Borrego Springs due to the large proportion of community members approaching or above retirement age, and the lengthy transportation distances to critical care hospitals.

The BVEF’s mission is to harness the power of philanthropy to create enduring, community-wide benefits for the Borrego region. This grant was made possible by the generosity of past and current donors to the BVEF. We are able to do this grant and others because of the generosity of the residents (full time and seasonal) who care enough about our community to take the time to donate. We sincerely thank you for your support.

If you would like to support projects like this, or others that may be of special interest to you contact Jim Dion at jdion@bvef@gmail.com.