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Health and Safety Services
American Red Cross classes help you lead a safer and healthier life.
Thanks to a grant from ADM Corporation, we are offering free CPR/First Aid classes to every school within our four-county area.
Today's innovative programs also include teaching lay persons and professionals to use Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) to save victims of sudden cardiac arrest. Last year, nearly 14 million people enrolled in American Red Cross health and safety courses.
Have you thought about what a competent babysitter needs to know, say, about first aid or choking? Can we safely assume that our babysitters have the knowledge to properly care for children? Even a little instruction can later save a child's life, create a happier work environment, and teach our babysitters responsibility.
The Mid-Illinois Chapter of the American Red Cross hosts babysitter training every few weeks. The course costs $40 per person and each participant should bring a sack lunch. Call 428-7758 to find out when our next class is scheduled.
Studies show that trained babysitters can prevent emergencies through proper safety planning. Trained babysitters also handle new situations better.
Teenagers often jump into the business of looking after neighborhood kids -- without adequate training. However, those who are Red Cross trained are more confident, receive more referrals and are able to positively react in emergencies.
This training course gives 11 to 15 year -olds the skills and confidence to safely and responsibly care for children and infants. Through hands-on activities, interactive video and lively discussions, the course teaches young people how to:
· Care for children and infants.
· Be good leaders and role models.
· Make good decisions & solve problems.
· Keep children and themselves safe.
· Handle emergencies.
We give students materials that are useful during the course and on the job. They get a Babysitter's Handbook packed with more than 30 first aid action plans, information and full-color skill sheets; a compact emergency reference guide; and an interactive CD-ROM featuring an activity booklet with games, songs, recipes and other activities, an electronic babysitting client organizer, a training bag and a first aid kit.
If you are a babysitter or you are a parent who hires babysitters, call us to find out when the next Red Cross babysitter class is scheduled. Or stop by at the Mid-Illinois Red Cross Chapter at 2674 N. Main St. Decatur, IL 62526.
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Lunchtime Trouble by Glenda Plunkett
It was like any other lunchtime with kids talking and laughing. Suddenly Glenda Weldy, Principal of Harristown Elementary, noticed that 10-year-old Melissa Scheiter was red in the face.
“I asked her if she could breathe. I could tell she couldn’t, so I turned her around and did the abdominal thrust on her, just like I learned in our Red Cross class. It was a taco chip and it came up immediately. Melissa was shaking; she must have been really scared. I never thought the training I had learned just days before would be needed, but it saved her life.”
“Her father called to thank me for saving his daughter’s life. He added that everyone should have first aid training.”
Class
Emergency
A first-hand account of
Red Cross training in action:
"I have been an instructor
in CPR and First Aid for the Red Cross for three years. Last year while in a school
teaching First Aid to a class of 7th graders, a boy keeled over from his
desk. He hit the floor hard. He was unresponsive and then he went into a
seizure. The teacher and teacher’s aide looked panicked. I knew what to
do thanks to my training.
I padded his head
throughout the seizure and removed the desks and other sharp objects
around him. After the seizure, I rolled the boy over to make certain his
airway was open and he was breathing. Then I checked him for other
injuries. I told the teacher to call for an ambulance.
Two days later we were
both back in class together. He hugged me for helping him when he needed
it the most. That’s when I knew how rewarding teaching is. I would
recommend that everyone be trained in First Aid and CPR."
Sincerely,
Elaine Aderman
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