The Foundation will distribute interest income on the fund to the Clark State Community College Foundation to provide financial aid for students in its Emergency Medical Services certification programs.
Springfield Fire Chief and former head of emergency medical services Nick Heimlich called Yontz’s work “a classic case of an individual in the community who saw a need and stepped forward to address it.”
The impetus for the effort is believed to come when Drs. George Anderson and James Harley returned from a medical convention sold on the benefits of defibrillating heart attack patients before arriving at the hospital.
Yontz’s provided publicity needed to make it work.
Says the Division’s 1974 annual report: “In November, Radio Station WBLY inaugurated a public subscription program to establish the Heart Attack fund.”
Since Yontz’s retirement in 1990 and death in 1996, the publicity that helped to encourage contributions and replenish the fund have lagged. In the 37 years since the fund’s inception, emergency medical programs have been integrated in fire departments and schools like Clark State.
Heimlich called the new arrangement “an expeditious way” to carry on the work of the fund. The Foundation’s Horton Hobbs IV said the move “gives life to the fund forever.”
Contributions toward the fund can be sent to the Springfield Foundation.
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0368.
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