The Whitesboro Fire Department (WFD) will host a free Community CPR/AED Class at 9:30 a.m. on Feb. 17 as part of an expanding community outreach effort.
When the WFD took over Emergency Medical Services (EMS) 15 months ago from underperforming Texas Vital Care, one of the long-term goals was to expand the service into proactive community outreach that benefitted the community and aligned with the mission of WFD EMS.
Next month, the EMS division gets one step closer to this goal with its first-ever Community CPR/AED Class. In the works for some time, the class’s implementation and instruction has been spearheaded by Paramedic/Firefighter Rustin Reedy.
The class requires pre-registration and is limited to 15 people. Anyone unable to attend this class should know that these CPR trainings will become regular occurrences. There will be plenty of opportunities to attend a class.
The registration flyer and QR Code can be found on the Whitesboro Fire Department Facebook page, or you can email [email protected].
This free class will not be a certified course. Participants will not leave with a certification or card by an accredited agency such as the American Heart Association or Red Cross. For now, the focus is purely on getting the message out to the community about the importance of immediate, compression-only bystander CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) and the basics of AED (automated external defibrillator) operation in life-and-death circumstances.
The class will cover instruction and information on several key areas, such as understanding cardiac arrest; the significance of CPR and AED use in cardiac events; distinctions between adult, child, and infant CPR; and a reiteration of WFD's steadfast commitment to improving cardiac outcomes by our EMS and WFD first responders.
The Fire division already had a significant presence in the community through participation in events such as parades and the Peanut Festival.
Fire prevention and education presentations have been a staple in Whitesboro schools for decades. The department has recently moved into inspections and is quickly becoming a visible source for safety and prevention as it relates to new construction and safe operations of local businesses.
The evolution of EMS community involvement has been subtle but deliberate. Immediately after WFD began the EMS operations, EMS crews began accompanying the fire department to community functions and interacting with the public whenever possible.
That grew into the offering of wellness checks last fall at the community center, which have now been moved to the Whitesboro Public Library on the third Thursday of every month at 2 p.m. during Senior Game Day.
Opening the station for classes was the next step. As the program grows, class offerings will expand to other areas such as certified classes, babysitter safety classes and more, depending on identified community needs.
The department plans to branch out in the community with class offerings brought to local businesses and schools.
Potential partnerships with the schools, daycares, churches and other businesses down the road could see the department teaching and certifying staff, students and volunteers on-site rather than at the fire station.