Video contest boasts a life-saving prize: two AEDs each for five winning troops

Aed-side Part of being prepared for an emergency means having the right tools. When dealing with a victim of cardiac arrest, there's no better tool for saving a life than an Automated External Defibrillator, or AED.

There's no debating the effectiveness of one of these devices—defibrillation within three minutes lifts the victim's chance of
survival to 70 percent. The next task that the BSA and AED maker Cardiac Science want to tackle is awareness.

That's where your troop comes in. Cardiac Science and the BSA are asking boys help educate the community about the importance of AEDs. And they're offering a huge prize for the troops that do it best.

The premise is simple. Have your guys find a community group or organization that doesn't have an AED but needs one. The Scouts then create a two-minute video that explains:

  • Why that specific community organization needs an AED.
  • Why AEDs are important.
  • Where you should keep an AED and why.

The five troops that create the best videos hit the jackpot—each winning troop gets an AED for their troop's use and one for the community organization they spotlight in the video. The total value of two AEDs? $2,800.

But there's no time to delay. The contest deadline is a week away: 11:59 p.m. ET on July 16, 2010.

Make sure to have your guys check out the official contest page and carefully read the rules.

Also, if you'll be at the 2010 National Scout Jamboree later this month, don't forget to help break the world record for the largest CPR and AED training course.


About Bryan Wendell 3282 Articles
Bryan Wendell, an Eagle Scout, is the founder of Bryan on Scouting and a contributing writer.