It takes, on average, eight minutes for paramedics to respond to the scene of an emergency, according to Jim Callipare, a health and PE teacher at Armstrong Junior-Senior High School. So, in an attempt to create more first responders in Armstrong County, and potentially save lives or just buy time before paramedics arrive, students at the school took part in hands-only CPR training on Nov. 18.
The session was led by Callipare, who trained the students using CPR kits. The school received 900 of the training kits as a donation from the American Heart Association. Each kit typically costs roughly $75, according to Callipare.
“The whole purpose is to try and create more first responders in our community,” he says. “Every single one of those kids will get a kit to take home and teach their family and friends. They won’t be CPR-certified, but they’re learning those basics. It’s a big deal to be able to provide those kits for those kids to take home and keep.”
Knowing the basics of CPR can help buy time before paramedics arrive at an emergency.
Rather than having students focus on both aspects of CPR, which include chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, the training covered hands-only CPR, which has been the preferred method since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Hands-only CPR involves chest compressions but no mouth-to-mouth.
“The hands-only is more up to speed today, with COVID fears,” Callipare says.
If each of the students who were trained can teach three to four people what they’ve learned, the community will have between 2,000 and 3,000 new first responders, he adds.
Each kit contains an instructional DVD, which goes through the basics of hands-only CPR and how to use the other items in the kit. It also contains instructional notecards that can be kept in a wallet or purse, as well as an inflatable dummy on which students can practice hands-only CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation.
“We’re not only going to show the kids how to do that CPR and talk to them, but I’m going to include a paper with their kit, and we’re also going to encourage them that their job is to go home and not only learn CPR themselves, but to teach members of their family and their friends,” Callipare says.
He wants students to record the names of the people to whom they teach CPR and submit the list to him. As an incentive, he plans to reach out to local fast-food restaurants to see if they will donate gift cards to students who submit names.
“We want to see how many extra first responders that we create in our community,” Callipare says.
Several years ago, Callipare trained CPR to students when he was teaching at now-shuttered Ford City Junior-Senior High School.
“We had a lot of kids that went home and got a lot of people to learn it,” he says.
