Thanks to the Sequim-Dungeness Hospital Guild, emergency responders can continue doing what they do best — saving lives.

Clallam County Fire District 3 accepted a check for more than $11,000 from Sequim-Dungeness Hospital Guild members on Dec. 12, at St. Luke’s Episcopal Church during the Guild’s annual Christmas appreciation luncheon.

The Sequim-Dungeness Hospital Guild donates proceeds from its membership dues and the Guild’s all-volunteer Thrift Shop in Sequim twice a year to support community health.

“The shop has had a really great year,” guild president Jean Janis said.

The luncheon also serves as a way to say thank you to the Guild’s year-round, hardworking volunteers with a potluck lunch and a performance by Sequim High School’s select choir. Sunny Farms donated deli turkey for the event and Olympic Medical Center donated the dessert.

Fire District 3 Chief Ben Andrews said the money from this year’s donation will go toward purchasing eight new automated external defibrillators (AEDs) that will be distributed to Fire District 3 volunteers throughout the Sequim community.

Andrews said the goal is to, “issue these to (volunteers) so if there’s a need for one in their community they can go straight there.”

He said that over the last two years these devices have been used to save the lives of several people. AEDs are portable devices that can send an electric shock to the heart to try and restore a normal rhythm in the event of conditions such as cardiac arrest.

The Guild’s publicity chairman Adeline Curtis said while the organization has been around since 1970, its current enrollment is at an all-time low and its always looking for more volunteers.

To shop at the Guild’s thrift shop, visit 204. W. Bell St. in Sequim or call 360-683-7044 for more information.