PETERBOROUGH, Ontario, Nov. 29, 2019 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- To mark CPR Month, today the Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation and partners, launched the ACT High School CPR and Defibrillator Training Program in 18 Peterborough and area high schools. This will see more than 4,000 students empowered by their teachers with essential lifesaving skills every year. The ACT Foundation is a national charitable organization dedicated to establishing CPR and defibrillation training in every Canadian high school. Since 2000, long-time provincial partner Hydro One has provided support to the ACT Foundation to bring safety training to students across the province, including in the Peterborough area.

ACT is working in partnership with its provincial partners, Government of Ontario, Hydro One and community partners Brighton Kinsmen Club, Kinsmen Club of Campbellford, Lions Club of Brighton, Lions Club of Cobourg, Ontario Power Generation, Peterborough Lions Club and Rotary Club of Port Hope, and health partners AstraZeneca Canada, Sanofi Canada, and Amgen Canada to bring this program to the high schools in the Peterborough area.

Funding will see high schools receive training equipment to enable teachers to train students. This includes Automated External Defibrillator (AED) training units, training mannequins, and program set-up that will see all students graduate with the skills and knowledge to save lives. With eight in 10 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occurring at home or in public places, empowering youth with CPR training as part of their high school education will help increase citizen CPR response rates over the long term.

“I want to thank the ACT Foundation and its partners for their incredible work on this initiative. It is important that our youth be taught the skills needed for situations where they need to act quickly to save a life. I am pleased that over 4,000 students in our community will be taught CPR and how to use defibrillator in our schools every year,” said Dave Smith, MPP for Peterborough-Kawartha.

“Safety is at our core at Hydro One. We are proud to play a role in building safe communities by extending safety training beyond the workplace,” said Daniel Levitan, Director of External Relations, Hydro One. “In partnering with the ACT Foundation, we are teaching high school students across Peterborough how to save a life. These critical skills will help a young person know how to act quickly when a neighbour, a friend or someone they love is in distress.”

“As a national health partner with the ACT Foundation, Amgen Canada is proud to help students learn life-saving skills for life-threatening emergencies, but more importantly, to become champions for health and science in their families and communities,” says Brian Heath, Vice-President and General Manager at Amgen Canada. “We strongly believe in the power of young people to inspire wellness.”

“We are thrilled with the commitment of ACT’s partners,” says ACT Foundation Executive Director Sandra Clarke. “Their support is helping the ACT Foundation enable thousands of students across the province to be emergency ready to respond to serious medical emergencies that can happen to their family members, friends, neighbors and others in their communities.”

About the ACT Foundation

The ACT Foundation is the national charitable organization establishing the free CPR and AED program in Canadian high schools. The program is built on ACT’s award-winning community-based model of partnerships and support, whereby ACT finds local partners who donate the mannequins and AED training units that schools need to set up the program. High school teachers then teach CPR and how to use a defibrillator to their students as a regular part of the curriculum, reaching all youth prior to graduation. ACT’s partners, committed to bringing the program to Ontario are the Government of Ontario and Hydro one and our national health partners AstraZeneca Canada, Sanofi Canada, and Amgen Canada.
www.actfoundation.ca or on Twitter @actfoundation #ACT2Save

About Hydro One Inc.:

Hydro One Inc. is a fully owned subsidiary of Hydro One Limited, Ontario's largest electricity transmission and distribution provider with almost 1.4 million valued customers, over $25.6 billion in assets and 2018 annual revenues of over $6.1 billion. Our team of approximately 8,600 skilled and dedicated employees proudly build and maintain a safe and reliable electricity system which is essential to supporting strong and successful communities. In 2018, Hydro One invested almost $1.6 billion in its 30,000 circuit kilometres of high-voltage transmission and 123,000 circuit kilometres of primary distribution networks and injected approximately $1.3 billion into the economy by buying goods and services in Ontario. We are committed to the communities where we live and work through community investment, sustainability and diversity initiatives. We are designated as a Sustainable Electricity Company by the Canadian Electricity Association. Hydro One Limited's common shares are listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX: H).

For further information: Hydro One Media Relations 24 hours a day at 1-877-506-7584 (toll-free in Ontario only) or 416-345-6868; Our website is www.HydroOne.com; Follow us on facebook.com/hydrooneofficial, twitter.com/hydroone and instagram.com/hydrooneofficial

For photo opportunities or media interviews and information:

Jennifer Edwards Director of Operations ACT Foundation jedwards@actfoundation.ca Tel: (613) 286-5260 Toll: (800) 465-9111	Richard Francella Media Relations and Communications Hydro One Inc. Richard.francella@hydroone.com Tel: (416) 345-6868
www.actfoundation.ca  www.twitter.com/actfoundation  #ACT2save  www.facebook/theactfoundation www.youtube.com/theactfoundation  www.instagram.com/actfoundation

A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/d1a7f2dc-5e86-4992-bad6-a05f37745569