Ozarka College awarded grant from Blue & You Foundation

MELBOURNE — Ozarka College has been awarded The Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas grant, which will help fund a comprehensive health and safety program.

Ozarka College was awarded $46,909 to support a Quick Response Health Care Initiative, to initiate a Cardio Wellness and Fitness Challenge, and to establish a Safety in the Workplace Initiative — efforts that will all promote healthier lifestyles and make a safer campus for students, administration and faculty. Specifically, the grant will provide for the installation of health and safety upgrades across all four campus locations, including automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and advanced emergency-response beacons.

“The Blue & You Foundation grant will provide for a very comprehensive program at the college,” said Josh Wilson, Ozarka College’s grant administrator. “The installation of AEDs and emergency-alert-system upgrades will provide a safer environment for all who visit the college.”

The impact of the grant initiatives will also reach far beyond the college campus. The Cardio Wellness and Fitness Challenge will challenge Ozarka College employees, as well members of the community, to adopt healthier, more active lifestyles.

The Blue & You Foundation award also strengthens the college partnership with the Northcentral Arkansas Education Service Cooperative and the nine public school districts in the college’s four-county service area (Fulton, Izard, Sharp and Stone). Specifically, the college has secured funding for adult and infant training manikins for NAESC to be used on loan for quick response health care training, such as CPR and AED, in the local school districts. In addition, the grant initiative will provide for the cost of training one person in each of the nine school districts to become a licensed CPR and AED training provider.

“The college is thrilled to partner with the education cooperative and the local districts,”Wilson said. “Having additional training providers in-house provides sustainable, quick-response training solutions for our schools, not to mention, it supports the state-mandated CPR training requirement for high school students.”