Getting together to save lives
Superior Life Support Inc. presented a free “lunch and learn” Saturday on what it takes to be a CPR instructor, teaching community members how to save lives.
The training also taught participants to gain leadership skills, earn extra income and make a difference within the community.
Participants were able to take part in learning how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation and also how to stop bleedings.
The overall purpose of the training, according to Amanda Ferrone, training administrator and instructor, was for people to become an instructor and to “teach someone how to save a life.”
Ferrone shared an experience of an instructor who taught a female participant how to perform CPR before Father’s Day. The participant found a boy in the pool who wasn’t responsive.
“Out of 40 people at the party, she was the only one who knew how to do CPR, and by the time paramedics came, he had a heartbeat and she was able to get his heartbeat back.”
Thomas Stafford, former firefighter and founder of the company, said he would like for more people to take part in these practices.
“We want to promote more people to become instructors and teach more people to save lives.”
Stafford said there are about 500 instructors within the network who train about 1,000 people nationally.
Videos were played in the training, including one from the American Heart
Association. After viewing the videos, participants proceeded to the product room, in which participants use mannequins practicing CPR, learn how to stop the bleeding from a body wound and other skills.
Justin Frye, director of business development for the company, said the mission of the company is to empower the next generation through life-saving skills. Before working and serving his community, Frye worked in the aerospace field. He said it feels amazing to take on a leadership role, being able to help out his community, but also to save lives.
He said his favorite part of the job is “helping others — and I know that sounds cliche, but that’s honestly the biggest reward.”