From left: Eden Prairie City Council members PG Narayanan and Lisa Toomey; Eden Prairie Lions Club Foundation members Maggie Bloomquist, Rick Jensen, Steve Lipschultz, and Gary Watkins; Mayor Ron Case; Council Member Mark Freiberg; and Parks and Recreation Director Amy Markle pose with a ceremonial check representing the Lions’ $21,000 donation for three new public-access AEDs. Photo courtesy of the City of Eden Prairie
Six weeks after committing money for two outdoor defibrillator stations, the Eden Prairie Lions Club returned to the City Council on Nov. 18 with another lifesaving contribution — a $21,000 donation to add three more public-access AEDs in city parks.
The new automated external defibrillators will be installed at Round Lake Park, Flying Cloud Fields, and Purgatory Creek Park. Like the earlier units funded this fall, each will be housed in a temperature-controlled SaveStation tower designed for year-round, 24/7 public access.
Parks and Recreation Director Amy Markle introduced the donation to the council.
“We are excited to have the Eden Prairie Lions Club back with us tonight,” Markle said. “We recently used one at Miller Park — something you never hope will happen — but we’re grateful they’re there when needed.”
A life saved — and a push to expand coverage
The urgency behind expanding AED access began in late September, when a 27-year-old Eden Prairie man collapsed during a pickleball game at Miller Park. His girlfriend, a registered nurse, started CPR while other players retrieved the park’s recently installed SaveStation AED. First responders continued resuscitation efforts, and he survived — the first confirmed SaveStation save in the metro area.
The Miller Park AED had been installed earlier that month after Markle — recalling a fatal cardiac arrest at a pickleball court in a previous city — pushed for placing publicly accessible units in high-traffic parks.
“When we presented the first two AEDs six weeks ago,” Lions First Vice President and Major Gifts Chair Gary Watkins told the council, “we heard from Amy that the first one the city installed at Miller Park had already saved a life. That inspired us to ask how many more it would take to cover all the major parks. These additional three are the result of that conversation.”
The earlier Lions donation — presented Oct. 7 — included $14,000 to purchase SaveStations for Riley Lake Park and Staring Lake Park.
With the Nov. 18 contribution, Eden Prairie will soon have six outdoor AED units across its park system.
A donation decades in the making
Watkins said the $21,000 grant comes from the Eden Prairie Lions Club Foundation and carries a backstory tied to the very building where the council meeting took place — Eden Prairie City Center, once partially occupied by C.H. Robinson, the freight brokerage giant.
For 25 years, former Eden Prairie resident Vince Immordino worked in that building, rising from freight clerk to vice president. He retired in 1998, moved to Henderson, Nevada, and has remained closely connected to the Eden Prairie Lions.
Watkins noted that the Lions Club Foundation includes all members of the Eden Prairie Lions and Lioness Lions clubs — and that Immordino helped start the foundation by providing its initial seed money.
This year, the Vincent C. and Pamela A. Immordino Charitable Foundation donated $100,000 to the Lions Club Foundation, including:
• $20,000 for scholarships
• $50,000 for investments
• About $30,000 for community grants — including the $21,000 used for the new AEDs
“We find it fascinating that money earned in this building 30 or 40 years ago went with Vince to Henderson, Nevada, and has now traveled 1,500 miles back to this building to support our community,” Watkins said.
In an email to EPLN, Immordino wrote, “Giving creates its own momentum. What’s most important is getting things moving.”
City praises long-standing partnership
Mayor Ron Case said the donation reflects a long relationship between the Lions and the city.
“Some people might ask why, as a taxing authority, we don’t just raise more money and do all of this ourselves,” Case said. “We can’t do everything at once. Donations help our tax dollars go further.”
He also praised the Lions’ long history of supporting Eden Prairie projects, from Schooner Days to park improvements.
“There’s a real synergy between the Lions and city government,” Case said. “For the Lions to give this money back to the city, and for us to receive it, only strengthens that partnership.”
The council unanimously accepted the donation.