Wouldn’t it be amazing if every person in Central Louisiana were prepared to save a life? Wouldn’t our community be a safer place to live? Start A Heart Cenla is offering an event where, free of charge, bystander CPR training is available to anyone interested in learning this life-saving skill.
At last year’s inaugural event, 479 people, ranging in age from 11 years old to 81 years old, were trained to save someone’s life. This year, we anticipate the number of attendees will double. The event will take place on Saturday, April 11th at the Alexandria Riverfront Center. Two CPR training sessions will be held again this year, one from 8:00am to 10:00am, and again from 11:00am to 1:00pm. Participants will learn how to perform Hands-Only CPR for adults, child and infant CPR, relieve choking in adults, children and infants, use an Automated External Defibrillator (AED), and recognize the signs and symptoms of a stroke.
In an effort to accommodate parents with children too young to attend the training sessions, Start A Heart Cenla is partnering with T.R.E.E. House Children’s Museum to present Pump It Up!, a program for children ages 4 to 10 that will explore heart health. This program will run from 10:00am to 2:00pm, allowing parents to attend the 11:00am Start A Heart Cenla training session. Enrollment for the Pump It Up! Program can be completed by logging on to the Start A Heart Cenla website or by calling (318) 619-9394.
Dr. Robert J. Freedman, Jr., a local cardiologist, is the Medical Director for Start A Heart Cenla. Along with his guidance, there are so many ways anyone can help make a difference. If you are American Heart Association Basic Life Support Certified, your help is needed to coach participants. Volunteers are needed to register participants, hand out t-shirts and much more. While all involved in the event are volunteers, it takes funding to inform the public of the event, cover facilities and equipment expenses. If you or your business would like to make a tax-deductible contribution to our CPR education efforts within our community, please contact us at (318) 445-7702. To ensure your name or business will be prominently displayed at the Alexandria Riverfront Center and in all promotional and advertising materials, please contact us no later than February 20, 2015. Our Fundraising Chairperson for this year’s event is Kyle Downs Drerup. If you have questions or would like additional information, please contact her directly at (318) 473-9734.
Please mark your calendars to attend one of our training sessions on April 11th and advocate to your family members and friends their participation in the event as well. Participants must be middle-school age or older. Registration for participants, CPR coaches and volunteers can be done by logging on to www.startaheartcenla.org or by calling (877) 477-7637. Each participant will receive a t-shirt, a participation certificate and, most importantly, the training to save a life. We hope to see you there! Get the training. Start A Heart Cenla. Save a life.
