Bolt for the Heart’s goal is to save as many lives as possible by placing automatic external defibrillators in law enforcement members’ patrol cars.
Pierre Twer, president of Bolt for the Heart, said funds raised from the annual Thanksgiving Day run has helped complete the goal of equipping all Indiana State Police and Hamilton County law enforcement departments with AEDs. The focus now is on placing AEDs, used to restart a person’s heart in case of sudden cardiac arrest, in all Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Dept. vehicles.
The 11th annual Bolt for the Heart 5K Run/Walk is set for 9 a.m. Nov. 24, starting at Carter Green in front of the Palladium at the Center for the Performing Arts in Carmel.
“Last year, we gave 100 AEDs to IMPD, and this year we would like to at least donate 100 this year,” said Twer, who serves as president of Bolt for the Heart.
The 2020 event was a virtual run amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“We had a couple thousand runners register last year,” Twer said. “Before the race, it started raining, so we had about 800 no-shows. Then right at 9 o’clock it stopped raining and didn’t start raining again until 10 o’clock, so those that were there had a great time.”
Twer, a Westfield resident who works with open-heart patients for Abbott Laboratories, said the approximately 800 T-shirts that weren’t picked up were given to Carmel Fire Dept. and Carmel Police Dept. members.
Race packet pickup is noon to 5 p.m. Nov. 23 at the Hotel Carmichael in Carmel. Twer encourages people to pick up packets Nov. 23, but there is pickup from 7:30 to 8:20 a.m. on race day
The most AEDs donated by Bolt for the Heart was 134 in 2019. The cost of each AED is approximately $1,700.
Two major sponsors are IU Health and Performance Services.
For more, visit boltfortheheart.com.
