My name is Stephanie Griffith, and I'm the Executive Director for Emergency Medical Training. We are an authorized American Heart Association (AHA) Training Center that trains thousands of people each year on how to save a life in the event of an emergency. We currently have 282 instructors that teach CPR/AED and First Aid to individuals across the state of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. On average, our Training Center along with our instructors, train approximately 5,000 students a year. Right now, we need your help.
To summarize the specifics, way back in 2015, we used to be Exeter Ambulance Association. When the ambulance company terminated, the AHA was notified and told us that our entity of being a non-profit had to stay the same. So in order for us to proceed as a Training Center, we had to assume all the debt of the ambulance portion of the non-profit to keep our Training Center. That was a big decision, but I chose to work through it and I've paid most of it off, one bill at a time. Apparently, the AHA said that things changed from 2015 and since we are no longer an ambulance company, our Training Center classification would need to change in their system. This change also means that instead of ordering all our course cards from their site (Shop CPR), we would need to order them from their sister site (Worldpoint). This is where the problem comes in. We have an old outstanding invoice (back from the old Exeter Ambulance) with Worldpoint that they want it paid by 9/15/22 if we want to keep our Training Center. If we pay the invoice, we can order from them, and the AHA will allow us to keep our Training Center as it is. If we can't pay the invoice, we can either close permanently or transition from a Training Center to a Training Site under a new Training Center. I hate to do this because I've always tried to keep things affordable and advocate for our instructors.
Please understand this is not my doing. I've done everything to try to combat this and get the funding to pay the invoice off. I have even reached out to our State representative to see if there is anything that could be done. I am still working on that and will not stop fighting for our Training Center. The ambulance portion closed because they were in debt and we paid everything off except Worldpoint. Most of you don't know that I've been working since 2016 without a paycheck and have lost my home since I forfeited a paycheck. This is how I paid off all the debt from the ambulance portion. The last invoice was just paid off about 2 weeks ago. I thought it was worth it because I believe in the work we all do in trying to save lives. Some of you also know that the first time I did CPR, I was 18 and in high school and it was on my dad who had a major heart attack, so that's where I got the passion to do what I do and is why I have fought so hard. We still have until 9/15/22, to try to figure this out so I am asking that if you can make a donation towards keeping our Training Center, it would be more than appreciated. If you know of a company that makes donations, I ask that you spread the word and see if we can raise funds to keep our Training Center going. All our donations are tax deductible and receipts will be issued for all donations. Anything that we can raise is more than appreciated. I've worked really hard to build our Training Center into something special that we can all be proud of and I really don't want to lose that. Thank you in advance for even taking the time to consider helping us.
Funds do take some time to be processed (90 days) through Go Fund Me, so if you would like to give directly to our organization, donations can be mailed to:
Emergency Medical Training Center
3933 Perkiomen Ave
Suite D
Reading, PA 19606
Receipts will be mailed to you for tax purposes.
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