Staff of the Department of Education and Children’s head office, Hamilton House, have presented ?1471.70 to Craig’s Heartstrong Foundation.
 
DEC staff nominated Craig’s Heartstrong Foundation as their first ever charity of the year after it embarked on a drive, in January 2013, to raise ?60,000 to equip all primary schools with defibrillators.
 
During 2013, they held dress down days and cake and biscuit sales and sold used Manx stamps, collected with the help of other Government Departments and companies, including Isle of Man Newspapers.
 
A bingo night, a baby photo competition and staff donating to a communal Christmas card, rather than sending individual cards to colleagues, boosted the total.
 
Minister Tim Crookall MHK and Danita Clark, Support Manager for Administration and Transport, did the Manx Telecom Parish Walk, the Minister making it to Ballaugh, his furthest distance yet, and Danita, in her first attempt at the event, to Rushen.
 
The first of the new defibrillators was formally presented to Dhoon Primary School in November and all primaries are now equipped with them.
 
The Minister said: ‘Having already equipped secondary schools with potentially life-saving defibrillators, Craig’s Heartstrong Foundation generously raised the funds to do the same for all our primary schools, also raising ?10,000 to assist St John Ambulance to train primary staff in the use of the equipment, so we wanted to contribute and we are delighted to present this sum today.’
 
The charity is named after Craig Lunt, a talented local footballer who died suddenly of an undiagnosed heart condition in 2005 aged just 25.
 
Paul Healey, chairman of the charity, accepted the cheque.
 
The staff of Hamilton House have chosen Pumps for Kids, an appeal run by the Manx Diabetic Group, as their 2014 charity of the year.
 
Photo - DEC Minister Tim Crookall MHK and staff handing over the cheque to Paul Healey, chairman of Craig’s Heartstrong Foundation. Also pictured are Sophie, Aaron, Emily and Zoe, the children of Susanne Kirk, Senior Secretary for Lettings at DEC, who collected, tore up and counted thousands of used stamps to cash in for the appeal.