The Parents Bought the Defibrillator

Sudden cardiac arrest doesn't check the game schedule — it can drop a 9-year-old at second base or a grandparent in the bleachers. Ankeny's busiest ballfields just got better odds against it, and the people who paid for the fix might surprise you. Plus: a Centennial softball team one swing from rewriting the state record book. Let's roll. 🚲

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The Ankeny Fire Department has installed a second outdoor AED at Prairie Ridge Sports Complex, one of the busiest recreation spots in town. The new cabinet sits on the softball concession stand, joining the one already mounted at the baseball complex — so lifesaving equipment is now within faster reach across the whole facility, 24 hours a day.

Here's the part worth noting: the city didn't buy it. The Ankeny Girls Softball Association — the parents and volunteers who run the youth program — funded the AED themselves.

Why it matters: an AED (automated external defibrillator) is the device that shocks a stopped heart back into rhythm. The American Red Cross says EMS crews respond to more than 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests a year, and roughly 90% are fatal — but survival climbs sharply when a bystander starts CPR and uses an AED before responders arrive. With youth tournaments, practices, and weekend crowds filling Prairie Ridge all summer, those first few minutes are exactly the gap this cabinet is built to close.

The Fire Department is also nudging residents to get certified — CPR/AED classes run through the Red Cross (redcross.org/take-a-class) and the American Heart Association (cpr.heart.org).

📍 Source: City of Ankeny

Speaking of those softball fields — the crosstown program is chasing a record of its own. The second-ranked Ankeny Centennial Jaguars swept the Fort Dodge Invitational this weekend, blasting seven home runs to take the title and push their winning streak to 18 games (25-1 overall). That lifts their season team total to 60 home runs — just one shy of the all-time Iowa record of 61, set by Pleasant Valley in 2024.

Mady Ott did the heavy lifting: three homers and 11 RBIs over the weekend, including the solo shot that capped a 9-3 win over No. 5 Cedar Rapids Kennedy in the final. And there's a second record in play — senior Jordyn Kennedy has 64 career home runs, seven shy of the state career mark of 71 held by former Ankeny/Centennial star Kendyl Lindaman.

The team record could fall as soon as tonight: Centennial hosts Southeast Polk in a CIML game.

📍 Source: Ankeny Fanatic

Ankeny gets new leadership in the building this morning: Brent Hinson begins as assistant city manager today. He comes from Mason City, where he was deputy city administrator since 2021, and brings more than 23 years in Iowa local government plus an MPA from Drake. He steps in mid-construction-season and during a quiet stretch at council — the next regular meeting isn't until July 6.

📍 Source: City of Ankeny

A genuinely pleasant start to the week.

One reminder as it warms: the region's mandatory lawn-watering ban is still in effect, so keep the sprinklers off even on the hot days.

📍 NWS Des Moines forecast for Ankeny

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Uptown already has a brewery, a creamery, and a gift shop full of Iowa makers — and, since 2020, its own candy store. Uptown Confections & Curiosities sits on SW 3rd Street right next door to Uptown Dairy, stocking handmade chocolates, gummies, and confections: the kind of old-school candy counter most towns lost years ago.

It bills itself plainly as "your hometown candy shop," open since 2020 in the heart of the district — an easy add-on to a farmers-market Saturday or a walk down the High Trestle Trail. As for the "Curiosities" half of the name? That's the part you'll have to walk in to discover. We're not going to spoil it.

The basics:

Prairie Ridge quietly got safer this week — and it was the softball parents, not the city, who paid for the defibrillator now mounted on their concession stand. Fitting, since the area's softball teams are the ones making noise: Centennial is one home run from the state record book.

Tomorrow: did the Jaguars break the all-time homer record at home last night? We'll have the result — plus what's worth your time this week around Ankeny.

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