Twenty years ago today, a beloved Huron County OPP officer died from injuries sustained in a crash while responding to a call for help. “It’s heartbreaking. But I think he’s watching from above,” said Brenda Orr. Dave Mounsey’s memory lives on through one of the police officers he trained many years ago. Patrick Armstrong is donating defibrillators to community organizations across Ontario in the names of fallen police officers, firefighters and soldiers. Mounsey and Orr were fundraising for a defibrillator for the Blyth Fire Department shortly before he died. “In a way, I’m carrying on Dave and Brenda’s work. I’m not going to take the credit and say 275. They did the first one, but I think it’s important to recognize that they did do the first one, and they started what became the Memorial Fund without even knowing it,” said Armstrong. The first defibrillator from the Dave Mounsey Memorial Fund was installed at the Blyth Festival in 2009. To replace that unit, which simply wore out over time, defibrillator No. 274 was donated to the festival on Thursday. “The mission of the festival, really, we’re here to inspire and to fill people’s hearts, and to know that now we have this instrument here in this building that is here to protect their hearts and save lives, it just means so much,” said Gil Garratt, artistic director of the Blyth Festival. “It warms my heart because Dave, obviously, being a police officer, he wanted to serve and protect, save lives. And he was a volunteer firefighter too, same sort of mission. And the fact that there’s a defibrillator in his name that could save a life, and he can continue to do the stuff he was doing when he was alive, just makes me very happy,” said Orr, Mounsey’s partner. Armstrong said eight lives have been saved by defibrillators donated through the Dave Mounsey Memorial Fund. It is a powerful legacy for a man who touched so many lives in Huron County and beyond. “You think about all of Dave’s teaching. I’m lucky that I was his rookie as a police officer and he taught me about community, about service. I hope that I exemplify that, and I hope that I’m living up to what he had hoped I would be,” said Armstrong.
