{"id":79870,"date":"2025-11-25T13:58:53","date_gmt":"2025-11-25T18:58:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.winterhavendaily.com\/?p=79870"},"modified":"2025-11-25T13:58:53","modified_gmt":"2025-11-25T18:58:53","slug":"culpepper-cardiac-foundation-installs-its-81st-aed-at-connect-church-in-winter-haven","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.winterhavendaily.com\/index.php\/2025\/11\/25\/culpepper-cardiac-foundation-installs-its-81st-aed-at-connect-church-in-winter-haven\/","title":{"rendered":"Culpepper Cardiac Foundation Installs Its 81st AED At Connect Church In Winter Haven"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Winter Haven, FL<\/strong> \u2013 The Culpepper Cardiac Foundation (CCF) has placed its 81st automated external defibrillator (AED) in Polk County, installing the life-saving device at Connect Church in Winter Haven. The new AED comes as part of the foundation\u2019s ongoing mission to increase access to cardiac emergency equipment throughout the community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Connect Church, the decision to add an AED to its campus was shaped by personal experience, medical insight, and community connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Request Rooted in Personal Experience<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Church member Anna Jackson, a pediatric nurse at Lakeland Regional Health, was the first to approach church leadership about acquiring an AED. Her motivation came from an incident that forever changed her family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn August 2021, my father went into ventricular fibrillation,\u201d Jackson shared. \u201cThe EMTs delivered three shocks from an AED, and in total he experienced cardiac death for forty-five minutes. He was not expected to survive. Thankfully, by God\u2019s grace and dedicated medical professionals, he made a full recovery with no injuries. My family knows firsthand how important an AED and cardiac life support is in situations like that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That experience compelled Jackson to reach out to the elders at Connect Church. \u201cWe all decided it would be best to have one on campus in case of an emergency,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Connecting With CCF<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deacon Dale Baker was then asked to research AED placement. Familiar with CCF founder Melanie Brown Culpepper through local nonprofit work\u2014and through his wife, who knows Melanie from her hair salon\u2014Baker knew exactly where to turn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen Anna asked the elders to consider getting an AED, they asked me to look into it, and I immediately thought of Melanie,\u201d Baker said. \u201cHaving an AED on location is an excellent idea. Eric did a great job demonstrating the AED and also gave us other important information on choking and fire prevention.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jackson said meeting Melanie was especially meaningful.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have tremendous respect for the CCF Foundation,\u201d she said. \u201cTo be able to take a personal trauma and use it for a greater cause is not an easy task to accomplish. Melanie\u2019s story is very personal to me, as we both understand the same trauma. It was very neat to be able to talk with her about all the changes AEDs have made in people\u2019s lives.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Training Brings Confidence to the Congregation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CCF provided hands-on demonstrations during the installation, something church members found invaluable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe demonstrations were extremely helpful and not complicated,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cI know my church now feels more confident in being able to perform aid in case of an emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Mission Born From Tragedy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Founded by Melanie Brown Culpepper in memory of her late fianc\u00e9, Michael Culpepper, who tragically passed away from heart failure in July 2020 at age 34, the Culpepper Cardiac Foundation has grown into a powerful community force. The all-volunteer organization now places a minimum of two AEDs each month throughout Polk County and provides three annual scholarships to students pursuing careers as first responders in fire, medical, or EMT fields.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Community Made Stronger<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the installation of AED #81, Connect Church joins dozens of other local organizations taking proactive steps to protect their members and guests during cardiac emergencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThank you for all of your time and effort that you put into your mission,\u201d Jackson added, expressing gratitude to CCF on behalf of the church.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about the Culpepper Cardiac Foundation, visit CulpepperAED.com.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Winter Haven, FL \u2013 The Culpepper Cardiac Foundation (CCF) has placed its 81st automated external defibrillator (AED) in Polk County, installing the life-saving device at Connect Church in Winter Haven. The new AED comes as part of the foundation\u2019s ongoing mission to increase access to cardiac emergency equipment throughout the community. For Connect Church, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":79880,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[171,1841,1843,1842,525,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-79870","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fast-factual-free","8":"tag-aed","9":"tag-aeds-saves-lives","10":"tag-connect-church","11":"tag-culpeppers-cardiac-foundation-3","12":"tag-saving-lives-matters","13":"tag-winter-haven"},"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.winterhavendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/img_3766-1.jpg?fit=924%2C681&ssl=1","aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t