Kendall community making carbon monoxide detectors available after tragedy in April
Press Release, Kendall Lions Club
KENDALL – On April 18, the Kendall community suffered a terrible tragedy. A single mother and her 14-year-old son died from carbon monoxide poisoning. As the entire community grieved, we began to realize that their deaths were preventable.
At the Kendall Lions Club Board of Directors meeting on April 19, we committed $5,000 to provide a free carbon monoxide detector to anyone in the Kendall Central School District who needed one.
We sought to partner with the five volunteer fire departments who service school district residents, the Orleans County Office of Emergency Management and the Red Cross. A meeting was held on May 1 with representatives from the Kendall Lions Club, the fire districts, the High School Principal and the Board of Education President.
It was agreed that the school would get the word out about the Carbon Monoxide Detector Giveaway to families in the district and the BOE President would notify the County Office for the Aging and the Department of Social Services to inform district residents who did not have children in the school. The EMO for Orleans County agreed to contact the Red Cross. Several of the Fire Departments agreed to deliver and install the detectors.
An informational letter was published in the June edition of the school newsletter and information booths have been planned for various community events in the summer and fall to notify community members and provide sign-up sheets.
A booth at the recent Kendall Firemen’s Carnival had 84 people sign up. Kendall Home Grown Days in August, High School and Elementary School Open Houses and the Kendall Scarecrow Festival in the fall will provide further opportunities for community residents to sign-up for a free detector.
Dale Banker, director of Emergency Management Office in Orleans County, contacted the Red Cross which agreed to provide training on the proper ways to install carbon monoxide detectors as well as free smoke detectors to accompany our carbon monoxide detectors.
The president of one of the fire companies involved in this project has been researching the best detectors to purchase and determined that they will cost between $32 and $38 apiece. With such a positive response to our first outreach, we estimate that we will be installing 300 carbon monoxide detectors in our community.
We truly believe this humanitarian project will go a long way to ensure the safety of countless members of our close-knit rural community.
