Commentary by Pierre Twer
As we recently completed our seventh annual Bolt for the Heart Family 5K at the beautiful Center Green in Carmel on a Thanksgiving morning, we were reminded yet again about what a great community we live in. The support for Bolt continues to grow as proven with our record number of participants this year. We welcomed 3,300 runners and walkers from 36 states, which is our best year.
We attained our goal of raising $200,000, which allowed us to meet our ultimate goal of purchasing 134 AEDs for Indiana State Police patrol cars statewide. We, with your help, have placed an AED in all 550 ISP cars. Additionally, ISP Supt. Doug Carter believes we may be the first state with every state police car equipped with an AED. All of us should be very proud of this and know that lives have and will continue to be saved.
This success does not happen without you and your family’s participation in Bolt for the Heart. On behalf of the Bolt board of directors, we send a sincere thank you. We would also like to thank the City of Carmel, Carmel Clay Parks & Recreation, the Carmel Police Dept. and the wonderful folks at the Carmel Chriskindlmarkt for allowing us to partner with them and utilize the great Center Green grounds.
Additionally, a significant portion of the revenues we generate are through our sponsors and many very generous individual donations. We ask that you keep them in mind as you go through making decisions in your daily life because they have been tremendous and supportive of our mission.
Our 2018 sponsors are: IU Health; Orange Theory Fitness; Performance Services; Living Generously; Wallington Asset Management; REI, Market District; Le Peep; McGowan Insurance; Ogle Design; Heart Reach Medical; Renaissance Hotel; Fast Biomedical; The Runners Forum; Cardiac Science; Andy Mohr Automotive; the Indianapolis Colts; and Current Publishing.
A final special thank you to our partners in Evansville, HeartSavers through Deaconess Hospital, which will assist us with a donation to the Jasper ISP post.
This was our best Bolt yet and it’s because of you. Our next goal is to place an AED in every city and county police car in the state of Indiana. The need is great, especially in the rural areas of Indiana. Through generous recent donations to the Bolt, we have already completed Noble and Tipton counties. Only 90 counties to go!
Pierre M. Twer is a Carmel resident and president of Bolt for the Heart.
