Brandon/ Winthrop
June 2024 Volume 19, Issue 6
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31
MAY 24 - AUG.4
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ROTARY CLUB OF BRANDON GIVES BACK WITH NINE CHARITY CHECKS
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JOGGING HEART ATTACK SURVIVOR REUNITED WITH CPR HEROES
By Jane Owen
By Linda Chion
Rotarians and charity representatives with their charity checks received at the Rotary Club of Brandon’s June 11 meeting at the Rivard-Simmons Rotary Event Center on Kings Avenue in Brandon.
impact right here in Brandon.” Giving out checks “is the highlight of the year,” said past President Todd Owen, who noted that last year, with three fundraisers, the club wrote charity checks amounting to roughly $135,000. “We’re a club that’s giving, and we keep giving, and that’s why we have our fundraisers,” President-elect Tim Ryan said. He added that Rotarians participate in four of five service projects annually, including Backpack Heroes and bringing lunch to the teachers at Kingswood Elementary School, which sits across the street from the Rivard-Simmons Rotary Event Center. Club members in 2017, after meeting for nearly six decades in various locations, opened a space of their own after raising $290,000 to purchase and convert the unoccupied home into a clubhouse at 3007 S. Kings Ave. Cash and in-kind donations included construction services, materials and labor at minimal or no cost, as well as $50,000 each from Roger and Kimberly Rivard and from the Simmons Family Foundation, on behalf of Rotarian George Simmons, who died in 2018. The club meets on Tuesdays at 12 Noon at the clubhouse, which is available for event rentals, including for conferences, parties and club meetings. For more, visit the website www.brandonrotary.org or call 813-767-5803.
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Nine charities received checks from the Rotary Club of Brandon thanks to money raised during the club’s two signature fundraisers, its historic Wild Game Night in February and its golf tournament a month earlier. At the club’s June 11 meeting, checks amounting to $111,538 were distributed to High 5 Inc. ($21,129), the Emergency Care Help Organization ($17,287) and Rotary’s Camp Florida ($14,406). Both Hope for Her and the Outreach Clinic received $13,445. Receiving $5,000 checks were the Angel Foundation FL and the Greater Tampa Bay Area Council, Boy Scouts of America. Representatives from the nonprofits were on hand to receive their checks. Rotarians set aside $5,500 for the Guatemala Aid Fund and $16,326 for the Brandon Rotary Club Charity Scholarship Fund. Eight graduating high school seniors were to receive scholarship checks at the club’s June 18 meeting. According to officials, since its founding in 1961 the club has donated more than $3 million to area charities. “That’s the impact we’re having on the community, to be able to give back not just $1,000 but sometimes as much as $20,000 to an organization,” said club President Patrick W. Skidmore II. Giving back a sizeable sum “can really change an organization, and to me that’s the key, to be able to make an
Drew Overlee, 64, Brandon Hospital as is grateful to be alive the first recipient of the due to the efforts of a newly created Lifesavgood Samaritan, first er’s Award. responders and the car“I am so grateful to diac care team at HCA everyone who helped Florida Brandon Hospisave my life, but espetal. cially Jake, who was On May 24, five the first to respond,” months after suffering Overlee said. a heart attack while In a medical emerrunning, Overlee met gency, immediate CPR the good Samaritan can make a critical difwho performed CPR to ference in survival. save his life. Community “It took six minutes members gathered for for fire rescue to arthe reunion, which took Drew Overlee hugging good Samaritan rive on scene. So that place outside of the am- Jake O’Brien after thanking him for per- means that Jake did forming lifesaving CPR. bulance entry of BranCPR on Drew for six don Hospital. minutes,” Porter Overlee was said. “When you running along start CPR, it alBloomingdalows us the minle Avenue on utes we need to December 22, arrive in time and 2023, when he to continue that dropped to the lifesaving meaground and went sure.” into cardiac arO’Brien said it rest. Bystanders is incredible to at a local busisee Overlee enerness saw him collapse and united to help. getic and doing so much better. Overlee had stopped breathing and had “The result of the situation is happy. I no pulse. 911 was called and Jake O’Brien, want more people to learn CPR. I was at 27, began CPR. O’Brien had learned CPR in the right place at the right time, and I had a college class a few years prior and was the right knowledge. I knew how to help,” stopped at a nearby gas station when he O’Brien said. saw people surroundign the jogger. He perThe American Red Cross and the Amerformed chest compressions until first re- ican Heart Association (AHA) are two of sponders arrived. the most well-known organizations that Paramedic Lt. Tobi Porter was close by provide CPR and first-aid certification. For with an ambulance and took over lifesav- more information, visit www.redcross.org/ ing efforts. Captain Brandon Yates and local/florida/take-a-class/cpr and www. firefighters from Engine 7 arrived on-site heart.org/en/affiliates/florida. HCA Florida shortly thereafter. Brandon Hospital is located at 119 Oakfield Overlee arrived at Brandon Hospital un- Dr. in Brandon. conscious and as a John Doe. His identity was not known until he was fingerprinted. Just a few days after his heart attack, he celebrated his 64th birthday at the hospital BRANDON HISTORICAL SOC.........PG 3 with Yates and Porter. HCPS SUMMER FOOD.......................PG 5 At the May reunion, O’Brien and Porter VOODOO BREWING CO..................PG 11 were recognized for their heroic efforts. EYE ON BUSINESS.................PGS 25-26 Porter received a surprise honor from
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